Marching Season 2012
by Tenuto07
Summary: Let's see if I can survive the ultimate test: marching season as pit section leader. Rated T for band.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, all. I'm back and I know I haven't updated my "You Know you're in band when…" List for a while. So guess what I'm up to today and for the rest of the summer? BAND! :D I am super, super, super happy. If band wasn't consisted in my summer, I would DIE of bordem. **

**This story is about my times in drumline/pit and band camp 2012. It's going to be one hell of a story just because it's band.**

**For the sake of people at my school, I'm not going to use anyone's last name. I'll use the first initial, but not the full last name. I don't need 100 other students running after me with a bass drum mallet for posting their names on the internet. **

**We'll start with last week's drumline practice. (6/12/12) Here we go! ~Tenuto07**

**2012 Marching Season and Band Camp**

**Sophomore Year**

**Show: Lunar Phases **

**Drumline practice, 6/12**

When around 100 of your family members come together to play instruments, its lots of serious work, but yet it's fun. When you spend time with your beloved section, it's more serious work, but it's even more fun. Today, I stand with the Charger drumline.

I walked into the band room after our instructor, John opened it. My best friend, Sam, and I have been sitting in the band hallway for an hour, feasting on puppy chow and Pocky. (For those of you who don't know what Pocky is, google it and eat some!)

"Hey, John," I said when he opened the door. Sam says the same and he greets us back. When the door opens, Sam and I pick up our bags and head inside. There's an extremely strict "no eating in the band room" rule that we used to not follow, but since Mr. W, our band director, forces us to vacuum, we quit. Sam and I start forking down our Pocky.

I'm not in drumline. In fact, I'm pit section leader. Do I need to be here at a drumline meeting? No, but it makes my day more interesting and I need something to do over the summer. John's okay with it too, so I don't mind hanging out with a few drummers.

I help Sam take out bass 3. The rest of the drumline starts coming in. Soon, we're all set up. From left to right, there's my other best friend, Jeremy on tenor, Nick on snare, Alex on snare, Brandon on bass 1, Marie on 2, Sam on 3, and Ben on 4. I walk across the room and isolate myself in the percussion corner. The xylophone in front of me, the marimba to my right, the glockenspiel to the left and everything else with a wall behind me creates a barrier between me and the drummers.

It was our typical practice. John starts talking about how we have to go to Relay for Life. It's about finding a cure to cancer. The line got a reputation and wants us to play. Mr. W wants me on cymbals. "We'll do the old, old cadence," John says. That's how we know what cadence to play. The 2012 cadence is called the new cadence, last year's is the middle aged cadence, and 2010's is called the old, old cadence. I'm only a sophomore, so I don't know it; neither does Brandon, Ben, or Marie.

"Hey, John, Mr. W said I could play cymbals," I said to him. He turns around from his snare drum.

"Yeah, that's fine. In fact, let's have everyone who doesn't know the cadence on cymbals." John fixed us another pair of cymbals after an accident last year when the handles fell off. Ben, Marie, and I all had a pair in our hands. "For Relay for Life, we're going to play the old, old cadence, Aspen Taps, and Funkengruven."

Funkengruven and Aspen Taps were part of our warm ups. Funkengruven was written by our old instructor, Mike. He was very annoying and wrote music for college levels and expected us to know it in an hour. Last year, he gave us the music for part 1 and 2 the day of the first competition. No, that competition didn't go well. Our show was very pit heavy.

We play through the songs and eventually have a break. Sam wanted more of the puppy chow I brought for us, so I took the box out of my locker and we walked to the other end of the band room. "No eating in the band room, Emily!" Sam said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Here, let's eat outside," I open the set of doors by Mr. W's office. Brandon joins us after a while and we sit there at eat puppy chow until John walks to the center of the room with a giant box. I put the puppy chow back and the three of us make it back to the middle.

"Let's have a vote," John said while setting the box down. "For Relay for Life, we need outfits. I know Mr. W suggested your pep band shirts." Our pep band shirts were black and long-sleeved. Mine has a giant hole in the center from playing the cymbals incorrectly. "Who wants to wear the pep band shirts?"

"As opposed to what?" Nick asked while looking at the box.

"Wear black socks, marching shoes, a white collard dress shirt with red ties, a pinstripe vest, and a fedora." That sounded really neat.

"No, can't we stick to a simple outfit?" Sam asked. Nobody heard her while they were digging through the box. With five of the nine of us there being boys, Sam lost.

"It's alright, Sam, the outfit won't be horrible," I assured her. It was already around 8pm, the time when we clean up and call it a day.

"Okay, guys, you can pack up now," John said while looking through some music. "Be sure to be here at 5:30 on Friday for Relay for Life." I helped the line pack up and Brandon and I headed out the door. Sam's mom comes early to pick her up, so she always leaves on time. I, however, call when I'm done. I don't mind spending extra time with the line. Once outside, Alex, Jeremy, Brandon and I are standing outside talking to one another.

"Here," I say to Jeremy while handing the Tupperware full of puppy chow to him. He doesn't really eat anything, so I end up making food for him a lot. Jeremy smiles and says,

"Thanks." With that, he takes the box and gets into the passenger seat of his mother's car. Alex leaves around the same time.

One of my old friends, Breanna, is standing right next to Brandon. She's an extremely hyper girl who annoys most people. "Hey, Emily!" she says enthusiastically.

"Hi," I say and we have a somewhat decent conversation. Brandon and I quickly back towards the door when we hear rim shots being played by John. "Quick!" I whisper as Brandon and I run away from Breanna. She was starting to get on my nerves.

"Hey, do you guys want a Frisbee? It's in the trash." John says as I quickly lean over the empty trash bin and I see a black snare head. I pull it out. He was replacing Nick's old snare head.

"Does it actually work as a Frisbee?" I ask John, but he didn't hear me.

"Let's test it!" Brandon says with excitement as I toss it to him. To my surprise, it works better than any other Frisbee I've ever used. Brandon threw it at me and accidentally hit a drum stand.

"Be careful you don't break anything," John says while he lifts his hand. I toss the drum head to him and he tosses it back to Brandon. After a few minutes, he says, "Okay, let's take this outside."

Brandon and I head outside when Nick takes off in his own car. John walks to his car and Brandon and I wave him goodbye.

When I call my parents to come, nobody picks up. I call my mom's cell phone. Nothing. I call my dad's. Nothing. I remembered my cousin was over, so I dialed her number. To my surprise, my older sister picked up. She doesn't live with me anymore, so I guess she paid my parent's a visit.

When she came with the rest of her friends, I got in the car to go have a nice, relaxing night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello **

** Okay, so that last chapter was kinda choppy because I don't remember exactly what we did. There's our first pit rehearsal tomorrow with the drumline, so I'm excited for that to start, too. Let's start!**

**Relay for Life, 6/15**

It's been a boring three days waiting for Relay for Life. I wanted to see the line again. My mom drops me off in the front and I enter the building. I walk in the band hallway, and of course, it's locked. I'm still an hour early and Sam said she'd meet me here a little early. She's in drivers ed right now, so I don't expect her out for another few minutes. I brought more food. I have a bowl of steaming mac and cheese in my hand that is somewhat burning me and more puppy chow. (If you haven't figured out already, I really like to make puppy chow)

I start walking down the hall and see a figure at the end of the hall pulling a backpack on their shoulder. _It's Sam! _I thought. I would know it was her anywhere. She looks up and I wave to her. She waved back and pulled out her cell phone. "Why are you calling me?" I said when we reached each other.

"I wanted to make sure it was you," Sam said. "Hey, look! Your pocket is lighting up!" I look down and sure enough, my pocket was glowing. We let out a laugh and head to the bathroom to change into our nice clothes for Relay for Life.

When we were done, Sam and I walked back into the band hallway. Sure enough, Mr. W was already there. Today, since Marie, Ben, and I didn't know the old, old cadence, there's been a change. Marie was going to play 3 while Brandon on 2 and Sam on 4. Ben and I were on our own with the cymbals.

The box of clothes is still sitting out from Tuesday. When everyone starts coming in, we all head to the box and pull out a red tie, a pinstripe vest, and a fedora. To my surprise, none of the guys except for Jeremy and Nick knew how to tie a tie. My uncle taught me a few years back during winter break, so I knew what I was doing.

"How the hell do you know how to tie a tie?" Jeremy said while I quickly pulled down the tie through the hole. I smiled and said,

"My uncle taught me a few years ago. I'm not great, but this'll do." I pulled on the vest. "Oh my god, it's Velcro!" I exclaimed while I stood there undoing the vest and redoing the Velcro. I sat there laughing for about a minute when Brandon came up to me.

"Really, Emily? It's Velcro!" He said and I sat there, continuing to play with it. The band really does suck out your attention span. After a few more minutes, I got over the fact it was Velcro and I walked over to Marie, who was having trouble tying the tie. I picked up a fedora hat for Sam and me. She was at her locker.

"Sam!" I shout and she turns around. I set the hat on her head and she starts yelling at me to take it off.

"Emily, take it off my head!" Sam starts to shout and places it on my head instead. We stand there laughing for a while when she needs to get bass 4 out.

"Jeremy, you know, when people wear ties, it's usually _under _their collar," I pointed out, him walking around the room with drumsticks in his hand.

"Oh yeah!" he says and we both laugh while he fixes his collar. I start walking around the band room, not wanting to do anything. Mr. W comes around with a case of water and starts to hand it out.

"Thanks," I say and walk over to Sam, who took off her hat and put it on top of mine. She strapped 4 on her and everyone got ready to walk outside.

"Can you hold this for me, Emily?" Sam asks and hands me her water. I take off the fedora and place it on her head. I then pick up the water with the cymbals hanging from my wrists. When we head outside, Sam and I talk when I drop my water. I pick it up when John offers to hold it.

"Okay, Sam's on the left, Emily's on the right; I won't mix this up!" John jokes around.

"It doesn't matter anymore, we share water all the time," Sam says. We can't help but laugh when John insists he keeps them apart.

"Hey, look a fire truck!" Chris, a former snare who came to fill in for my friend James, said. "Why is there a fire truck here?"

"Just in case one of you guys start on fire. The drummers are HOT!" Mr. W exclaims and Sam and I start to laugh. He then walks ahead of the rest of us to hear our plan from the hosts.

"No, you gotta say it like a five year old. Look, it's a fire twuck! Fire twuck!" John says and Sam and I burst into more laughter. We do laugh a lot, but hey, that's what best friends do. We're here to make good memories with each other.

When we get to the edge of the track, everyone who set up wasn't quite ready. John instructs us to take our instruments off and just hang around for a while. I look around. There were many tables set up all around the track of many different things. "Look, it's a bouncy house!" Ben exclaims and points to the other end of the track. Sure enough, when I look over, there is a giant purple Dora the Explorer bouncy house. "AND it's Dora! John, we should be able to bounce in it!" John is busy talking to the other half of the drumline. The line likes to split in two when we have breaks.

We stand there for a while, thinking of ways to get into the bouncy house. When Mr. W walks by, we start shouting to him that we want to go play in it. "Yeah, Nick mentioned that too. No drummers in the bouncy house!" he said and we all sighed. "Maybe for band camp; I'll set up a giant bouncy house and maybe that'll bring the kids to come!" the five of us standing there started to laugh.

After a while, they were ready to start. "Okay, snares, then tenors, then bass's, then cymbals in the back! No, wait, Sam's not here, so we'll have the two cymbals next to the tenor." Sam L. was our other tenor player; he always has baseball, so he never makes it to line. I take my place. Jeremy was on my left, Alex was in front of me, and Sam was behind me.

"I'm sorry if I run into you, Emily! I can't see anything," Sam says and I laugh.

"Don't worry, I'll forgive you!" I say and Sam and I laugh again. Mr. W comes around and tells us to tip the front of the fedora down, just to cover our eyes. He goes around fixing everyone's hat. He comes up to me and points it downwards. "Mr. W, one issue."

"Yes?" He answers.

"I… I can't see anything!" I say. He smiles and fixes it. "Thank you," I say and he pulls out his phone to start recording.

"Chris, start the tap off," John says and when we were ready, we started marking time. Right after the Boy Scouts, we march and the line starts the cadence.

It's quite the fail, the cadence. There weren't enough bass's. Nobody knew their parts. Ben and I started crashing at random moments. We ended the cadence right in the middle of the song and dropped our things right after the Boy Scouts walked off. The minute everyone had everything off, Mr. W said, "What was that, guys?" We all stand there, laughing at our major fail.

The line and I break apart again and stand there talking. I missed most of what they said; everyone was introducing every person in the big line of doctors they created. "Tonight, we're here for fifteen hours, walking on…" was all I heard when it clicked. _Fifteen hours? That's crazy! _I think I would die.

"John, do we have to stay for all fifteen hours?" Ben asks.

"Yeah, only you do. You can do a fifteen hour cymbal solo. We'll be here at 6 am to come find you." John said and we laugh some more. (Wow, I didn't realize how much the line actually makes me laugh)

About an hour pasts and we've got nothing accomplished, except for talking about how the music is extremely repetitive. They've been playing "Chariots of Fire" for ten minutes, and then changing out the song. They then go back to "Chariots of Fire." It got quite annoying.

More time pasts and John tells us to line up at the side and play. We go through Funkengruven a few times and then go to Aspen Taps. "Let's try the cadence, one more time!" Mr. W says and we all say,

"No!" and we laugh again. One more round of Funkengruven and we're off! Since none of us want to attempt the cadence again, we just tap off and march back to the entrance of Grove Field, our football—or should I say marching field. The line and I run through Aspen once more and we leave. Sam and I are the last people to leave the field.

"Way to leave your own line!" Sam says as they were already very far ahead. When we reach the band room, everyone puts their equipment back. I drop the cymbals on the cart when John tells us to gather around.

"Okay, so for the Lions Daze parade, people are offering to make us free t-shirts. We need a good design. Does anyone want to draw one for us?" John asks. Alex turns to me.

"Emily, aren't you good at art?" Sam starts to speak.

"Yeah, she's a very artistic person!" she says while she puts bass 4 away. John looks at me.

"Okay, maybe; we'll see." It does sound fun, but I don't want to mess up shirts and have the whole line mad at me.

Most of the line already left. I give Jeremy my bag of puppy chow that I refused to let Sam eat because she was already sugar high. I call my parents and end up sitting at school for an extra thirty minutes that were not intended.

All for the love of band…

**Okay, much better than the first chapter, but we really didn't do much that day. Please review and thank you! **

**Sorry if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes. There shouldn't be, just because it's on word, but it is 3:34 am and my mind isn't working too well right now. Should I sleep? Probably, but I'm not tired. Oh well, I guess I'll crash at line tomorrow. Well today, really. In a few hours. Meh, whatever. **

**Good day!**


	3. Chapter 3

** Hi!**

** Today was our first pit rehearsal. It went… well, how should I put this? Let's just say we got super off topic today. The drumline also heard a lot of screaming. You'll see, so let's start!**

** Drumline/Pit (6/19)**

Today was another rehearsal. Instead of our usual starting time at 6, we started today at 5 with just the pit. John wasn't there when my sister dropped me off. The school was empty until a bunch of cheerleaders started piling in. Finally, Matt, an oboe-percussion player like me, shows up. I look out the door and see Sean, our former bass 5 player. Since he graduated, he has come back to visit us and is going to help out with the percussion a lot.

John came a few minutes later. Since he doesn't have a key into the band room, he goes to find a janitor. "I went to McDonalds and I got a Mellow Yellow. I was at a stoplight and I picked up the soda. It slipped out of my hand and I held it by the lid. The lid came off and the whole soda spilled to the ground," Sean said and I laughed.

"Way to go, Sean!" I said and he gave a jokingly depressed look.

"I miss my Mellow Yellow… These fries are making me thirsty. I paid a whole dollar for it!" Sean said and I laughed again. Matt seems to be standing awkwardly in the back. "Hey, look, it's Sam!" Sean says and sure enough, when I turn around, Sam is walking down the hall. I wave to her and she waves back.

By the time Sam walks back to us, John is walking back alone. "No janitor?" Sean asks and John shakes his head. John digs into his backpack and pulls out a binder with phone numbers in it.

"I tell the janitors, every Tuesday we have line. They say they'll put it in the schedule. Guess what they don't do?"

"Don't put it in their schedule?" Sam guessed.

"Exactly," John said while he pulls out his cell phone and dials a number. "Hi, this is John O, the percussion instructor. I need the band room open for rehearsal." John says and continues the conversation with the janitor. In a few minutes, a janitor comes and unlocks the door. "Thank you very much," John says and we enter the band room.

"I haven't been here since June 7th!" (Our last day of school) Sean says.

"How does it feel to be back in here?" I ask him.

"Well, it's just a room. But it is nice," He answers. Sam and I walk around the room for a while and talk to John. When my friend, Eric, arrived, Sean, Sam, Eric and I were talking while John set his things up. Matt stood at the corner, unsure of what to do. _He probably just doesn't know where to fit in. _I thought. He'll get it in a few hours. By the end of the day, he'll know exactly why he's here.

Sean re-told his story about spilling his Mellow Yellow. "And then I found ten dollars!" Sean added. "I didn't, really, but when you add that to the end of a suckish story, it makes it better." We laughed at that and Eric said,

"I died, but then I found ten dollars." We laughed some more at that while Sean and Sam walked over to the piano sitting in the corner. John starts to talk to everyone about random things when Sean sits on top of a tenor case and collapses on top of it. He got up just in time, but the case fell over. We all burst into laughter.

"Okay, usually those cases actually _have _something in it and it's closed," Sean says and we can't help our laughter.

"Pit, set up!" John says while we pull out the best xylophone we own with a marimba. Eric and Matt have the marimba while I take the xylophone. We play through the C scale, the pit's only fatal scale flaw. "Start on C and go up to G. Go from G and back down to C. Then, start at C and go up to D. Start at D and go down to G. Go back up from G and up to D while going all the way back down to C. Then, start at C and go back up to D and down and end."

To be completely honest, I am completely lost. _John, I lost you after you said 'Start on C and go up to G,' _I thought. He started to click off the beats on a woodblock.

We played through for a while when we went extremely fast. Matt and Eric stopped while I ended steadily. "Emily just dominated that C scale!" John exclaimed while we stood there laughing.

Soon, the whole drumline started piling in. John, the pit and I were ranting about double flats. After we were done, he looks up at the time and says, "Wow, we just killed a lot of time about musical theory." He put his right hand up and says, "One semester of musical theory, that's it. I can't teach you much more!"

Our pit sectional was pretty much over. John hands me a stack of music; all eleven parts of the show music. "Six people with eleven parts, you guys are going to be running around a lot!"

"Oh, I know. It's crazy," I say and look at my music. I flip to movement 1 of marimba music and point out my sixteenth note solo to him.

"Yeah, we might change that up a bit. It sounds cool, but it's extremely fast." We discuss the music for a while when he hands me a part for Eric and Matt.

The whole line is ready and set up. John tells me that we can set up in the band hallway so we can actually hear ourselves. I turn around. Eric is eating dinner. Matt is talking to Marie in the corner. I wait a few seconds before I say, "Pit! Set up in the hall!" They obey me as Matt takes the vibraphone out, Eric the marimba, and I take the xylophone.

"Is here okay?" Matt asks as we line up against the wall.

"Yeah, it's fine," I say while I thank John for bringing us stands out. Sean follows out the door. "Are you supervising?" I ask him.

"Yup! So, Ms. Section Leader, what's first?"

"Well, I was thinking of running through part 1—"Eric cut me off while he was messing around with mallets. Sean stands up, grabs a mallet, and starts hitting him with it. Eric runs away and hides behind the set of doors at the end of the hall that lead to the stage. (Or better known as the FAC, for those of you who've read my "You know you're in band when…" List) The door is a crack open when Sean holds the mallets like a baseball. He gets into his pitching stance and throws the mallet across the room to hit Eric.

They continue this for about a half hour until I decide to actually learn my part. Sean soon says, "I just got a call. I have to go to the hospital. My grandma's there right now; she's fine but you know… Tell John I'm sorry I have to leave." And with that, he walks out the door.

"Bye, Sean!" I call out and he says bye back. I then turn to focus on the music. Matt is hacking away on the vibes, trying to learn his part quickly. Eric is still messing around with the mallets. "ERIC! Pick up the mallets and start learning!" Eric listens and reluctantly picks up the mallets. I force him to play a few measures of part 1.

We continue for hours, or what felt like hours. "Hey, where's James? He said he'd be here," I said while I pull out my phone to text him.

**Me: Where are you?**

**James: Outta town. **

**Me: What the heck? Lol, I have to tell you something later. I'll call you. **

**James: Okay, I'm sorry. Why r u mad at me or something? **

**Me: No, trust me I'm not. I'm just… idk. I'll call you later. **

That ended our conversation. I wanted James to make drumline so badly, even John feels bad he's making this decision. Well, at least I can rely on James more than Eric.

Nothing of interest seems to happen with us in pit. Eric and I take more than necessary breaks, but with me staying up until 4 am to update Fanfiction, I'm pretty exhausted. (Yes, yes I do stay up till 4 updating this story) We talk a lot, some about super powers, others about Mike. We broke every rule on Mike's "Stupid Rules for Stupid Reasons" List. Even Sean broke one; never sit on cases.

After numerous events of screaming at Eric, the three of us finally got down measures 1-33 of part 1. Line ends sooner than expected, which is good because I don't think I could stand and play for any longer.

I stick around long enough to watch John fix bass drum harnesses. I eventually head outside as Jeremy and I wave goodbye to John and end up being the last ones left. Jeremy's mom arrives around ten minutes later. They switch seats, so Jeremy could drive. He's a junior, but he only has his temps. He's a surprisingly good driver. After he leaves, I sit there for another five to ten minutes waiting for my dad. When he comes, I get in the car and drive home.

I had a depressing phone call to make to another best friend about staying in pit with me.

**So, the phone call wasn't as depressing as I made it sound. I summed up a lot of stuff we did because most of it was just me screaming at Eric and Matt locking him in the FAC hallway. I would have posted this on way earlier this morning, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. So I hope you actually enjoy reading about my times with my family.**

** Have a good one! ~Tenuto07**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, all!**

**Another line meeting today. It was great. You'll see why in a few seconds. **

**Enjoy! ~Tenuto07**

** Drumline, 6/26**

Right after I exited the car after my sister hit the curb of the sidewalk, I walked into the building. I saw Sam through the door and she pulled on it, making it harder for me to pull. "Sam! Is that necessary?" I ask and we both give out a laugh while she let go of the door.

"I hope the janitors come back and unlock the door. I mean seriously, they can't just keep their things right in front of the door," Sam said as I turned around and saw a ton of janitor supplies by the band room door. Luckily, as she spoke this, a janitor came up and unlocked the door to the hallway and the band room for us.

The band room is set up where there is a hallway (The room of brick, as I like to call it) and the band room is connected to it by two sets of doors. Sam and I set our things down in our locker and head back out into the hallway. She pulled out some food while she let me play Magic Piano on her tablet. "This tastes stale," Sam said as she pulled out a cherry pie. I was busy trying to get some of the songs to download because there was no internet connection in hallway.

"This cracker tastes funny," she said after pulling out some peanut butter crackers.

"You're just not happy with your food, are you, Sam?" I asked her as I played "Claire De Lune" on Magic Piano.

"No, I'm not. Wait till John walks in and finds out the band room's already opened," Sam said while stuffing a bag of Fritos back into her bag. It was around 5:30 when John arrived. "Look, John! The band room's open!"

John was ecstatic as he walked through the entrance with a smile. We all picked up our belongings and headed inside the empty room. The lights flickered on once it sensed our movement. John, Sam, and I talked for a bit. I moved some bells around so I could sit in the back and play the marimba. Later, I pulled a chair and a stand over. I set my water bottle and phone down on the chair. When the rest of the drummers started walking in the band room, we all set up and I sat myself in my corner of wonders. (Which now I'm thinking, it really _is _a corner of wonders)

We start with our usual warm ups; 'Aights, Aspen Taps, and Double Trouble. After we get through our warm ups, John calls for a five minute break. I get out of my corner and start talking to Sam, who was planning a bass sectional. Apparently it was at Marie's house tomorrow. As soon as John calls our break over, I stand up from my sitting position and say to Brandon, "I'm going to go confine myself in that corner now." He laughs as I walk behind the drummers and sit in my chair again.

The drumline runs through the runs through the cadence for around a half hour. I get bored of the marimba because I don't want to make very loud noises. John would probably start yelling at me to stop hacking. I make my way to the electric keyboard. Sean was using the headphones… Mr. W probably put them away. _Dang it, Mr. W. I need to use those! _The drumline is so loud I can't even hear myself think!

I sit at the keyboard for a while until every time there was an awkward silence; I end up to be the only one playing. I resort back to my marimba.

John calls for another break. The line breaks into our usual groups of two. The bass line is still planning their sectional for tomorrow and John finally tells us to go back to our places. We're going to play the show music for the very first time.

I like the show. It's short enough, sounds really cool, and easy on the pit. It is definitely better than last year's show, "Spanish Passion." It was pit heavy and we couldn't cooperate. "We'll start at measure 37 because that's when the drumline plays!" John exclaimed and then added, "The rest is all just a massive pit solo. It's the entire front ensemble." The drummers turned to me and started cheering for me.

"Go Emily!" Brandon shouted as the snare and bass line were shouting.

"Don't mess up!" Jeremy said and I smiled at their encouragement.

"I'll try not to," I said. I don't think once, ever in my entire musical career was someone giving me that much encouragement about playing an instrument. It felt nice.

John tapped off the beat on his woodblock. (That's _entirely _made of plastic. I already deemed it as the plastic block) I'm not sure what tempo he was going, but it definitely wasn't show tempo and too fast for me to process the notes in my mind. I don't know if anyone else is good at this, but I _cannot, _whatsoever read music and play the bells without messing up.

We played little by little in the music. Soon, as we got to page 3 of 4 in _just _part 1, we finally reached my marimba solo. John was walking around showing them my massive solo. The drummers reactions are priceless. Yep, nine measures of just me playing 16th notes at 172 bpm. It's no big deal. (Hopefully –she says with a "wtf" expression on her face while looking at it-) "Pit solo… maybe?" John asks as he taps off a beat.

"Probably not."

"Pit solo… maybe?" John asks again and everyone in line is staring at me while laughing. He then turns and counts us off. When we reach my solo, everyone stares at me again and John continues to tap the beat off. What do I do? I end up stand there laughing with mallets in my hands, sitting in the corner of wonders.

John obviously didn't expect me to play. After a few more rounds of playing the whole song through, (which I _completely _failed at) he called for another break. We talked some more and started discussing my solo. Soon, John called us off our break and said, "Back to 37! Or we could just have Emily play for 37 measures."

It's sad to say the line agreed with him for that.

John didn't make me play for 37 measures. Instead, they started at 37 and I came in with at least ten-thousand mistakes.

Line was soon over. The bass's packed their things and loaded it into Sam's car. When they were done loading, she got in the car and waved me goodbye. Quickly, everyone started to leave. Jeremy and I were the last ones left, once again. John left and we waved him goodbye after he offered us a ride.

Jeremy and I talked for the whole time. It was really nice. I find it hard to talk to him most of the time, but this time we had a decent conversation that mostly involved him drumming. I was chucking my water bottle into the air until I finally dropped it so many times that it created a hole in it. When my mom came to pick me up, I waved goodbye to Jeremy.

I got to talk to my best friend alone and I felt important in line today. Yeah, today was a good day.

**Line yesterday was really fun. (Well, you read why) and I actually felt important! It was really awesome. **

** Sam actually has a FanFiction account now. (Trackgirl18) She mostly does band stories like me. You should go and check out her stories!**

** I has nothing else to say. Good day!**

** ~Tenuto07**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone!**

** So we had a productive pit sectional today. Sam and I planned it so I can see her on her birthday and spend some time together before I go to the other side of the country.**

** Happy birthday, Sam! (Trackgirl18) **

** Last night I was talking to Jeremy. Apparently I don't make him crazy enough in my story than he really is in real life. (Yeah, craziest kid I've ever met… but I love him because he's part of my band family and my best friend. So if you end up reading this Jeremy… well, I don't know what to say.) So pretty much, keep in mind that he is 10x more crazier than I make it seem. Unfortunately, he's not in this chapter. **

** Okay… let's start before I forget. ~Tenuto07**

** Pit Sectional, 6/28 **

What do you know; it's at least 100 degrees on Sam's birthday! (With high humidity, don't forget that!) Sam came over to my house and loaded bass 2 and 3 into the car. We took 1 to the basement as I carried down Sam's bell set she's letting me borrow. "It feels so good down here!" Sam exclaimed as she walked down the stairs.

We practiced the Lions Daze music for a while. After a while, we got sick of playing the same thing over and over and over again. We head upstairs and make some puppy chow.

A good half-hour pasts and we load bass 1 into the car. Surprisingly, everything fits perfectly. We get in the car and drive to school.

Mr. W, being the slacker he is, isn't at school. (Although he did say he would be there from 9-2… and at the time it _was _11) I emailed him, knowing that I wouldn't get a response.

The school's summer school program is still going on. There are at least 15 little kids running around with golf balls/clubs. When we unloaded the bass drums, all the little kids started playing with the harnesses. Eventually they left it alone after getting bored of them.

When summer school ended, Sam and I lugged the drums into the hallway. A kid appeared behind me. "You must be Jake," Sam said as I turned around.

"Yeah," Jake says. Not much later, Matt arrives.

"Hey, look its Oboe!" I say. (I'm too lazy to check if I already said this, but Oboe was the nickname I gave to him)

"Hi," Matt said as he stands at the edge of the hallway. A few moments later, Mr. W arrives.

"Mr. W!" You're here!

"Hey, guys! I left my keys in my other car. I'll be right back." Within a few minutes, he came back and opened the band room. I put on the harness for 1 and carried 1 into the band room. I set the puppy chow on a random chair and pull out a xylophone. Matt takes out the vibes and Mr. W puts Jake on timpani.

We made a lot of progress. The whole pit can play measures 1-17 with almost perfect dynamics. Soon, we start adding more measures. Mr. W tells Matt and me to work on our double stops. (I _really _hate double stops) "Emily, what do you play for this song?" Mr. W asks.

"Marimba."

"Then why are you playing on a xylophone?" I only laugh and go to pull out the marimba.

Eventually, we get through 1-37, right when the drumline starts to play. Mr. W adds another few measures. He tells me to play through while he does some other important teacher stuff. He also instructs Sam to teach him timpani. "What am I supposed to teach him?" Sam asks him.

"Probably Eight on Hand; try that," Mr. W says and he walks to his office. When I see Sam's reaction to this, I burst out laughing. Matt and I hack away on the marimba and vibes. I work on my double stops. I can't seem to hit the G with my left hand. I keep trying and I don't get far.

"Sam, I am going to murder this G," I tell her. She laughs and says,

"Yeah, don't worry. I already did that for you." I forgot, whenever I taught her music during the year, she'd always get mad at the notes she couldn't play and declared them officially out of the alphabet.

I go back to my stupid double stops. We run through for a while, when Mr. W says we did a good job and it was a nice improvement. Mr. W comes back out. "You know, Emily, I really do hate to offend you with your height, but your wrists are leveled with the marimba. It makes it harder making good rolls. Let's find a stool or something for you." (Yeah, I'm like super short)

I really, absolutely want to do a face plant into this marimba right now.

I stood there, twirling my mallet in my right hand around. I drop it and say, "That would be ten-thousand push-ups from Mike, right there." Sam's in the back, laughing. I thought she was laughing at my joke when I turn around and Mr. W is walking back with a random red stool that takes up space in the back hallway.

"It's even red!" (One of our school colors) Mr. W exclaimed.

"Yay…" I say unenthusiastically. The pit laughs and Mr. W sets it on the ground. I jump on and find the marimba at least two feet from my waist.

"Okay, so that doesn't work. We'll find something," Mr. W says and walks away with the stool. _Mr. W…. _I say in my head and then start screaming in my mind.

"Well, then… Let's start working from 1-37," I say as I turn back to my marimba. _I was fine last year, why are you doing this to me, Mr. W? _

After a while I called for a break. "I want puppy chow, let's call it a break," I say and the pit starts to laugh with me. Since Sam and I made an oath to never eat in the band room ever again, I take the Tupperware That I left in my locker from the time Jeremy gave it back to me from Relay for Life and take it outside. I slide my left shoe off so the band room doors don't lock me out. Sam appears out of nowhere and wants to steal my shoe so I get locked out. "Sam, no!"

"I'm really thinking about it!" she says and walks away, leaving me outside but not locked out. I open both boxes and dump as much as I could into the other box. I steal about four pieces and head back inside. _I'm only out here for like three minutes and I'm already super warm. _

I stuff the box for Jeremy back in my locker. I promised him puppy chow, so when I left for vacation, he'd still have some. "Jeremy better be happy with me," I told Sam. "I went all the way outside to give this to him." Sam laughs. I look around. Matt and Jake are talking. Sam is pulling out 3 for practice. Mr. W is walking out of his office to us.

"Are you guys done?"

"No, we're just taking a break," I replied.

"Ok, you guys leave at 1:30, right?" Mr. W asks. I nod and I tell the pit to set up again. We play through a few more times and then Mr. W tells us to play through once more and we can leave.

When we get through the song once more, the pit and I pack up. Oboe put the vibraphone in first, making it harder for me to fit the marimba in. "Mr. W, where should I put this?"

"Where did you find it?" I point to him. "Well put it where you found it."

I'm still thinking of face planting into this marimba. "You're a percussionist; you should clean this area up."

"Maybe I might; if I get help from some people." I respond and put the marimba away. I take Jake's email down and Sam and I get back in the car to drive back to my house.

This year, I have a pit to be proud of.

**So this chapter was just a filler. I have to hurry up and post this chapter for Sam. Have a good one! ~Tenuto07**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, everyone!**

** I've been away for a few days and I come back with reviews! Yay for me! I'm sorry I've been away for a while. I'm currently on vacation right now and I'm missing everything with the band… But that's alright because Sam and Jeremy are keeping me updated! Yay for best friends! **

** Ahhh… back to writing… Well… let's start! I'm sure the time I spent on Vacation was you screaming at your computer for me to update this… Just kidding, I'm sure not many people read this anyways… oh well, its fun to write. Now seriously, I'm gonna start. **

** Drumline, 7/17**

My mom dropped Sam and me off by the band room doors. We hung out during the day and now we were currently unloading bass 3 out of my car. When we walked through the doors, a janitor was cleaning the band room and left it open for us.

As we set 3 down, I turn to the percussion section. We don't have an actual percussion room like most schools, but the room was big enough to put all the percussion stuff in one corner, fit the entire band in it, with lockers on the sides.

I look at the percussion side with an astonished look on my face. _I leave for a week! I leave for just 10 days and they completely ruined the place! _I thought. I don't expect the percussion to perfectly put away their instruments, (haha, that's a freaking joke) but I do expect them to not do what they want to them. "Is this what happens when I'm gone for one sectional?" I ask Sam, who was busy looking through Hayden's binder. (He's our former snare who quit band) Sam looked up from her seat.

"Yup," was all she said as looked back down and started taking all his pep band music out. "You know, I really do want some of this music."

"Then take it; he's not coming back. And besides, Hayden _actually _playing music? That's a joke!" I said and we both laughed. I ended up cleaning the whole percussion section. I moved the bass drum to the back. The cymbal and drum stand carts follow quickly. Sam told me to put our good xylophone in the back. I shove that and our older xylo right in front of the carts.

"Don't forget you can use the other side, also," Sam reminded me. I almost completely forgot. The room is set up so there is a wall of percussion stuff, a door, and more percussion stuff. The timpani and old random other percussion stuff usually sit there. I move the chimes to the timpani side, along with the remaining timpani that is randomly set up in the middle of nowhere.

After around twenty minutes, the whole section was clean. "I give it two weeks, Sam. It's not going to stay clean after this."

"No, I give it one. Next week is the pit and drumline," she says.

"Awww I totally forgot…" I said and she starts laughing. I walk over to the piano, where I sit and randomly start playing a song.

"What song are you playing?"  
"_Seize the Day _by Avenged Sevenfold," I say and continue playing. Shortly after, Sam walks out of the room. I look up and see John walking in. I wave to him and see that his left hand was covered in white bandages. I wonder what he did to his hand. A few seconds later, John walks out of the room and Sam enters shortly.

"John's here," Sam says. She takes a seat and John walks in again, walking to the now clean percussion corner.

"What did he do to his hand?" I whisper to her. She shrugs her shoulder and I shut the piano off. I help her set up 3. Soon, Nick appears with Jeremy. Ben comes later and Marie quickly follows. "What did you do to your hand?" Jeremy asks John.

"I cut it at work. I needed eight stitches." John answers.

"Oh, that's fun," Jeremy replies.

"Oh yeah, lots and lots of fun." Sam and I laugh again. "Brandon and Alex aren't coming tonight," John said. Soon, his phone starts ringing. I sit next to Sam.

"I don't want to learn today…" Sam says and I laugh. We talk for a few more minutes when we look over to John, who says loudly,

"Okay, Sam… Don't worry about it. See you soon," and with that, John hangs up the phone. "That was Sam," he says in an obvious tone. "He forgot he had a baseball banquet and isn't coming till 7:30."

"How do you forget you have a banquet?" Nick asks as we all laugh. We talk a few more minutes until John calls us to set and force me back into my corner. I look at the line. This year, it's small. There's Jeremy on his tenor, Nick playing solo snare today, and Marie, Sam, and Ben. Missing three people really kills the line.

We start with 'Aights. John was yelling at the bass line almost every second of our warm ups. "I'm sorry, guys, but we gotta fix these small details. These songs are easy. They should already be memorized. How long have we been working on these warm ups for?" he lectures. The bass line is quiet. "A long time," Is all John says when he calls set and we play through it a few more times.

The mood is tense, but the line and I quickly move onto Aspen (Which I can't play on a marimba) and then Double Trouble. I really hate that song. John keeps yelling at the bass line. We're silent for the time being. "Okay, let's just all take a deep breath. Inhale…" We all take a breath. "Hold it… hold it… hold it…" _John, you're going to kill me at this rate. _"Now, exhale slowly." The line and I listen to him and move on. I give a small smile to Sam, who smiled back. We usually communicate to each other this way, by eye contact.

After we run through parts of movement one, we finally reach my solo. "Can you play this yet?" John asks. I was hoping he'd be light on me with this. The solo isn't easy. Unfortunately, John wasn't working with me today.

"No… I don't," I say.

"Play it anyways!" Nick shouts from his spot. I look over at him. "It doesn't matter if you miss a note or two. Nobody would know the difference except John. You're going to have to learn it eventually, so why not now? There's a first time for everything." _Nick, you're really not helping… _

"Yeah, come on!" The bass line and Jeremy shout at me.

"No, I'm not playing it."

"Come on!"

"No! I can't play it!" I shout and turn back to John.

"Why can't you play it?" John asks. I had no answer.

"Well… It's really hard. I haven't looked at it for a while," I reply with a bad response. _That's no excuse! _I say to myself. _Shut up, mind. _I thought.

"The solo is sort of important. We can't have you not play at this part," John tells me. I give a deep sigh.

"I know…"

"Okay, then how about you go out into the hallway and practice it? We need you here," John tells me. "If that's okay with you."

"That's… fine, I guess," I answered too quickly. _Me and my stupid mind! _I thought to myself. Well, I had no choice now. I fold down the stand and set my music on the keyboard. It probably wasn't the best idea, but oh well. I push the marimba to the door. When I reach the set of double doors, the two metal tabs on the side that lock the door shut are closed tight. I reach for the top one. It doesn't move all the way. I go to the bottom one. Luckily, that tab moves, but the door doesn't. I redo the top tab and the door opens. I set the marimba up on the side and work on the door tabs again. This time, they wouldn't move. "I can't close the door…" I tell John.

"What?" Jeremy says and the whole line laughs at me. I got the tab to go down and John says,

"There you go."

"I… fixed it," I said and close the door behind me. _Dammit, I need a stand. _I walk back inside with the line still staring at me. When I close the door, I set up the stand.

I was sort of upset at John for being like that to me. It's not like him to act that way. I know he didn't mean to be like that to me; he just really wanted me to learn it. I wanted him to realize, also, that the solo isn't easy. (I swear that's the 4905 time I've said that) I decided to pull out my phone and text my good friend, Ana. She isn't in band. In fact, she's in choir and she goes to a different school. (Actually, it's the school that Mike teaches at. I feel for them…) Ana tells me that she's busy. It is her birthday today, in fact. I wish her a happy birthday and leave her to whatever she's doing. I turn back to my solo. _I'm going to have to learn it eventually. _I think, quoting Nick's words. _I can't have this be like last year. _

John pressuring me into playing this song is like someone handing you the score to _Death Waltz _and expects you to play it. (Synthesia it on YouTube if you don't know what I'm talking about) It's no easy feat. Part of me is angry at John for leaving me out here. The other half understands him. He just really wants me to learn it. I guess I have no reason to be mad at him.

I stand there, staring at the music for about three minutes. _Come on, Emily! Just learn the damn solo! _

I play it measure by measure. After about ten minutes, I learned the first two lines. That's more than half the solo. I'm proud of myself. I guess after you break something down, it's not so hard. The solo was really easy, actually. I pick up music very quickly. What can take someone to a week to learn a song can take me a day. (I don't mean to sound too full of myself… sorry if I made it sound that way)

John soon joins me out in the hallway. "How's the solo going?"

"It's alright; I learned the first measure and a half."

"Let's hear it." I play it with a few mistakes.

"Play it part by part. Don't worry about big sections. Play it slowly and pick up speed until you think you can play it," John says, giving me good advice.

"Okay, thank you," I say as he walks away, going back to the line.

"It's gonna sound sweet once you get it down," John says.

I sit there for the next hour and a half in the hallway, taking no breaks as I did before. I was determined to learn this. Sam L, our other tenor player who is usually playing baseball, came to join us. "Hey, Sam!" I said happily.

"Hey!" he says and walks into the band room, leaving me in this cave-like hallway.

When line ended, Sam comes to get me. She helps me put the marimba away. When she walked away to get bass 3, I find Sam L's stuff in the way. (Two Sam's… this is going to get confusing!) "Sam!" I whisper loudly. "Can you move your stuff?"

"You move my stuff!" he says jokingly and says, "I'm kidding, here hang on…" he picks up his things. I place the marimba in the correct spot I put it in when I was cleaning, and helped Samantha get bass 5 out of her car. (Maybe I'll do that… Samuel and Samantha instead of Sam and Sam. We'll see…)

Bass 5 practically killed my hand carrying it into the band room. We place it on the ground and load 3 into the car. After that, John offers me a ride home, but I turn down his offer. I call my parents, only to have Samantha's mom drive me home. For the next week, I'll really have to sit down and learn my part. As a section leader, I should be on top of things; know what to play to help my section out as much as I can. I just wanted to be a good section leader, as well as a good musician.

I _will _learn this solo, no matter what it takes.

**Wow… that was longer than I thought it was. Yeah, today wasn't the best day in line… **

**As a musician, I need to take these consequences and do what it takes to learn my part. You should too, no matter what it is. Emily's lecture of the day.**

**I really hope next week's line is a lot better. Oh, wait… It will be. I have my pit buddies with me! I really need to hold another sectional; one that James can actually attend. I haven't seen him since school ended! **

**This is Samantha's (Trackgirl18) last week in line until she goes on vacation for two weeks! She won't appear in the next two chapters… Unless I text her or something.**

**I'm gonna stop ranting now, cause you're probably sick of it. **

**Have a good one! ~Tenuto07 **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello everyone! **

**Another chapter starts soon. Today was a good day overall; minus the part when I was raging at my T.V. because I couldn't beat Count Waltz from Eternal Sonata… **

**Anyways, besides that, pit was fun. We got a lot accomplished. Band camp starts on August 8****th****, so I'll be updating every single day! (My god, I'm gonna go insane)**

**Let's start before I forget everything!**

**Drumline and Pit, 7/24 **

I was a bit late to pit practice today. We usually start at five for pit and six for line. I walk into the building and the first thing I hear was a metronome. (Dr. Beat to be exact. –pushes off cliff-) Matt Oboe is looking down at his vibraphone. John was reading his score. Nobody noticed as I walked in. "Hi, sorry I'm late!" I said when John shut Dr. Beat off.

"That's fine; come and join us," John said as I shoved my bag in my locker and got the marimba out. I'm not sure what's wrong with the marimba, but the brake seems to be on at all times when it says it's not. It's a stupid thing. Oh well, guess I have to deal with it all year. "If you would like to join us at measure thirty-seven, that would be great." I open my music and see where thirty-seven is. It's the part where the line joins us.

We play through until we reach measure forty-five and everything turns into a disaster. John makes us play it measure by measure. Eventually, he speeds up and I can't seem to hit the C flat note. _I AM GOING TO BURN THIS NOTE! _My mind screams. John keeps pointing out to me that I never hit it. Finally, what seemed like forever, Matt and I finally nailed it down. John cheers and throws his arms in the air.

Matt and I got through those few measures again and John does a golf clap for us. When the drumline comes in, Matt and I figure that we're pretty much done. No Ben appeared, so it was going to be a two person bass line; that is when Marie comes. "Where the hell is Ben?" John asks in a disappointed tone. John instructed us to go out into the hallway to practice.

When we got to the door of the metal tabs, (which I really, really hate) I push the marimba to the usual spot against the wall, right next to Matt. Jake pulled his timpani behind me and we all went to grab stands. Once we got stands, I instructed them to seriously get to work. "What do you guys want to do?" I ask them.

"How about we play a little bit first by ourselves and then come together as a group?" Jake suggested. Everyone was with the idea. I hacked away on the solo and wherever Matt and I practiced today. After around ten minutes, I pulled the group back together. We started from the beginning and ended at forty-five. The pit and I played through again and fell apart at forty-nine.

Eventually, the pit and I got sidetracked. Soon, we got sidetracked about being sidetracked. I explained about band camp to them. We talked more about solo and ensemble. (Waste of time, I tell you…) "Okay, we seriously gotta stop getting sidetracked," I said.

"Let's start!" Matt Oboe shouted as Jake was randomly hitting the timpani.

"But…" Jake said as he hit the timpani some more.

"LET'S START! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVE, EIGHT!" I shouted and we all started playing.

Later on, I called for a break. I was going to text Eric to see where he was.

**Me: Eric, where are you?**

**Eric: I'm here, where are you?**

**Me: Umm…. In the band hallway?  
**

That ended our conversation quickly. I had a feeling that Eric was messing with me. Soon, Brandon called us in and we pulled our stuff back into the room. I glanced at the line. They all had random new clothing apparel that they didn't have on before. Sam L. (Samantha doesn't appear in this chapter…) had a red tie from Relay for Life on, Jeremy had a fedora, (which I was going to bring…) and Nick had an Asian straw hat. Brandon had no weird clothing and neither did Marie. When we set up, the drumline quickly got back to their places to get ready.

"Okay, let's play from thirty-seven until… we mess up," John said and we started laughing. Soon, we reached my solo and he made me play on my own. I couldn't follow the metronome and I didn't play it fast enough. Soon he said, "Okay… we'll come back to that later…" I burst out laughing and so did the line.

"Good idea," I say and we continue on. Soon, we have a break and I walk around. "Nice hat," I tell Jeremy and he smiles.

"Thank you," he says and turns to his tenor. When our break was over, we played through movement 1 again and ended up playing it through fully. We packed up early and headed outside. I talked to Jeremy for a while and he told me a story about how he spent $94 on jewelry from Hot Topic. When John came out, we talked about how when he was in drivers ed, he and his friend always went to a store and bought around fifteen burgers and arrived back from break like twenty minutes late. He said his teacher didn't care because he always brought back burgers for her. We were laughing and he offered me a ride. I turned it down again and said,

"See you guys later!"

"Bye!" John replied.

"Adios," Jeremy said and they walked off to John's white car.

The pit and I made a plan. We're going to learn movement 1 by the first day of band camp. We've got a plan, and we're going to stick to it.

**That was the worst chapter EVER! Sorry, I totally zoned out for the day. I'm just not with it today… **

**Stay tuned for next week!**

**~Tenuto07**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello everyone!  
How's life with all of you? I just recently finished Ouran High School Host Club. THEY NEED TO MAKE A SEASON 3; I'M SERIOUS! I'm going to be cosplaying as either Haruhi Fujioka or Kyoya Ootori at Anime Milwaukee! If you really, really, really want to see me for whatever reason, well, I'll be there next year!**

**Anyway, this is the second last line practice until band camp next week! So instead of this story updating on Tuesday, It won't be until next Wednesday. (And every day…) Mr. W wants the leaders to be at freshman orientation NO LATER than 7:30 AM! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?**

**Let's move on to the story! (Fair warning, the chapter might be short because I did literally nothing today…)**

**Drumline, 7/31**

I walked into the dark and empty band room at around 5:20. Today was a drumline only sectional, but I thought I'd drop by early to get some practice in. If we're going to run through movement 1 today, I want to be prepared. Band camp is slowly creeping closer and closer every single minute. (Yep, 9 days left!)

Right after I thought I was alone, I heard voices coming from the back guard room; or so I thought was coming from the guard room. I shove my bag in my locker, and jog to the other end of the band room. When I reached the mini hallway, I saw a girl and a band mom in the back uniform room. I knew the girl, but not her name. I knew she was in guard. I stop in my tracks. "Hi," I say simply. The girl turns around and so does the mom.

"Hi!" the band mom cheerfully greets me.

"Oh, hey," the girl says.

"Organizing the uniforms?" I ask as I spot a second band mom, who happens to be no other than my best friend, Beatrice, or Bea as we call her, mom. (I don't know if that sentence just made sense, but you know what I mean…)

"Yep, they just got back from dry cleaning. They're organizing it back to their original spot," the guard girl says. I look at the familiar uniforms. The black and silver trimmed collar that almost chokes you to death. The upper half of the jacket split red with a large "H". The lower half of the jacket split white. There was the edge of the sleeves that were all black. It was all completed with almost glittering white sashes that were trimmed with black. Of course you couldn't forget the pitch black bibbers (I think they're called bibbers… -Googles it-) that had a red streak running down both sides, held together by thin white ones. (Uniform talk, yay!)

Of course you couldn't forget about the drum major's jacket and the shakos. (Helmets as I call them) The drum major jacket was all black with collar edging of red, as well as the end of the sleeves. (They use the same bibber) The sash was gleaming red with edges all white. Our shakos were all black with a silver plastic (I'm pretty sure they're plastic; I never had to wear one) star, an "H" carved into it. The plumes were either black or red, depending if you were the drum major, or just part of the band. (Drum major red, band black. I don't think that two paragraphs were necessary to just explain the uniforms, but now I don't have to explain again…)

"Hi, how are you?" Bea's mom asks me.

"I'm good," I say with a smile and follow the girl into the guard room.

"You're in guard, right? I was just never good with names," I say. (Yeah, stupid question, but whatever)

"Yep! My name's Sarah," she says.

"I'm Emily," I say.

" And you're Vi's little sister, right?" she asked me. (Vi, or Vila, was my older sister who graduated two years ago, if you didn't catch that before) I nod.

"Yep," I say and we talk a little bit about band camp. "What do you think of the show?" I ask her.

"Well, I don't really care for it right now; I just want it done and over with. I'm sure during State, I'll start to get emotional, though," Sarah answers.

"It usually goes that way," I say and we remain silent for a few seconds. "Well, I'm going to go ahead and practice," I excuse myself out of the tiny guard room and into the big open space.

"Okay, well have fun!" Sarah says as I smile and walk off. I jog back to my locker and pull my binder, my iPod charger, and a Dr. Pepper out. I take a sip of the soda and shove it back in the deep locker hole. (No joke, it looks small on the outside, but I swear half my room is in there)

I play through movement 1 for a bit when John walked in. "Hi, John," I said.

"Hello," John replied and set up. After a few minutes, I reached the ending. I didn't play with the drumline, so I was very confused on how to play it. (As easy as it looks…)

"Hey, John, how do you play the ending?" I asked him. He walked over and looked at it. John showed me how and we talked for a bit about my solo. He decided to cut it down to eighth notes and have the pit harmonize my part. I'm glad for all the encouragement the drumline and even my fellow Fanfiction reviewers have given me, but truthfully in my mind, I know I would never be able to play note by note at that speed alone.

"I don't want it to be like, the band is playing and then boom, marimba solo. I don't want you to embarrass yourself," John says. Now that I think about it, yeah, it sounds a bit mean, but I know, all John is doing is giving me a favor.

"Thanks, John," I say. I know Oboe won't be too happy about playing, but I did the best I could.

"No problem," he says. We talk some more and John is stumbling over almost every word he says. "Today isn't going to be a good practice, I can already tell," John says.

"Yeah, today hasn't been a good day for me, either," I say and we both start laughing. (No, it hasn't. First I woke up before noon, then I went biking with Brandon and my friend Collin and I hit Collin's bike… Yeah, I fell. I was chased by a bumblebee and then came the boringest day at line ever!)

John smiles and walks back to his set up stuff. Nick walks in the room, quickly followed by Jeremy. I check my phone to find out Samantha texted me.

**Sam: You going to line tonight?**

**Me: Yep, already here.**

**Sam: Oh cool is John there yet?**

**Me: Yep.**

**Sam: Tell him I say hi!**

I burst into some quiet laughter and walk towards my marimba. Marie enters and Brandon follows. "Wow, I haven't seen you in a full two hours!" I exclaim in a joking tone. We both smile and he says,

"I know! Well, actually, it's been more like an hour and forty-five minutes." Brandon has always been one of those people who have to be exact.

"Ah, whatever," I say with a smile and turn around to face my marimba. After a few minutes, Brandon is set up and everyone is messing around. "Sam says hi," I tell John.

"Hi, Sam," John says with a small laugh. I text back to her and continue to walk towards Brandon. We talk for a while until John calls us to set and I get up to leave.

"How's everyone doing today?" John asks his usual question. We all answer "good" and move on. "We're going to start with 'Aights," he says and starts Dr. Beat. –Pushes into volcano-

I decide not to warm up on the marimba today because one, I was too lazy to and two, I've been playing for the past forty-five minutes. I think I'm okay with warm ups. I know these excuses would never fly with John, but since I didn't really have to be here, I got more freedom than the drumline. I re-read a text that Mr. W sent out from Europe. He said "Ahoj vazeny studenti!" and closed with "Cau, JW" in a different language. He's in the Czech Republic right now, so whatever language they speak there was what he said. (If anyone can translate, that'd be amazing! Or I could Google it, but I'm too lazy to)

The metronome was ticking faster and faster. Soon, the drumline and I were at 180 bpm and that was the edge of their comfort zone. We slowly began to fell apart after that. John stopped the met and moved on to other warm ups. After warming up was over, he said, "today our goal is to run the show at the same tempo. We're starting with movement 3 and slowly back tracking." _Okay, I'll just wait for movement 3 to be over so I can play 1 with them. _I thought.

-A half hour later (7:30)-

We're still in the middle of movement 3. In fact, we're still on the first page. I was following along with my own part.

-Another half hour later (8:00)-

We're in the middle of the second page! Part 3 has a huge drum break in the middle. I don't play, so I get to count for nineteen measures.

-Another hour later (9:00, ending time)-

We finally finished movement 3! It's too bad we have to pack up now. We didn't even get a chance to run through movement 1. (That's my favorite movement) Well, I guess we'll wait for next week.

I was sleep deprived and half dead by the time line ended. Brandon and I walk out the door, which Jeremy held open for us. "Thanks," I say to him and I didn't expect a response. (He's Jeremy, after all…) I call my parents to figure out that my dad was already in the parking lot. When he pulls up, Jeremy and I both say "See ya" at the same time. I pull open the door to the silver Honda Pilot. "When, band camp?" I ask him as I turn around.

"Yeah… that's August 8th, right?" Jeremy asks as he pulls out his iPod. I nod and he corrects me. "Wait, I'll see you Tuesday."

"The 8th is on a Wednesday," I say.

"Yeah, but don't we have line next Tuesday?" he reminds me. I completely forgot.

"Yeah, I think so…"

"I'll ask John," Jeremy suggests and the door swings open. We both hope it's John, but we figure out it's only Nick. My dad urges me to get into the car to go home.

"You can tell me later or I'll tell you," I say and wave as I enter the car. We swerve around the parking lot and I catch one last glimpse of Jeremy until he's completely out of my sight.

John was right; today wasn't the best line.

**Wow, this chapter is longer than I expected! I hope you guys get a good visual of what the uniforms look like. (I mean, I did take two unnecessary paragraphs to explain it) I also hope that you guys have a good visual about the band room itself, also. I try my best!**

**I was so~ bored today. Literally, there was nothing to do. The pit and I want to stick to our plan, but looking at part 3, I'm sure our plan will work. At least I hope. **

**Well, next week, I'll have an update for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday! Thank you so, so, so much for everyone who's sticking with me. I greatly appreciate it, I really do. Reviews are wonderful to read!**

**Samantha comes back next week! –Happily cheers- She'll be in the next few chapters a lot. **

**Stick around for the week of hell! ~Tenuto07**


	9. Chapter 9

**My week of hell starts: Now.**

**Hello, all! I hope your week has been a lot better than mine. Tomorrow is going to be my death before death. I have to be at school no later than 7:30 am and then have to go to band camp till 9 pm. Yay for band! –She says sarcastically- I love band, but 7:30 is too early to be doing any kind of work in the summer… I'm just lazy XD**

**Today was one of my off days—another day where I get mad at the pit. I love them, but I don't know what to do with them. Do you know the feeling? I hate it. Well, since I've got… 1… 2…3…4…5… chapters ahead of me, I'll start the typing now!**

**Drumline and Pit, 8/7/12**

I walked into the band room a little later than usual. Jake was at his timpani, Eric on my marimba, (I don't know why I refer it as 'my' marimba, just do) and Elijah was walking around eating Subway. John was at his usual spot in front of the room. As John saw me walk to my locker, he said, "Eric, do you play marimba for movement 1?"

"Yeah, of course I do," Eric replied while looking at his music. John stared at his score. I let John handle this one, just because I didn't feel like arguing with Eric. Eric looked up at me and willingly gave up the marimba. I walked over and John motioned me to join him in the front. I pull a pair of mallets out when I set up. They were running through part 1 and I decided to join them. Elijah put his sub away after breaking the number one rule of the band room.

I never did a full introduction on Elijah. So, here it goes. Elijah C. is in my grade; sophomore. He's originally a saxophone player, but he came in late during the year last year so he was in pit. This year, he stayed in pit because of the lack of members we have.

We played through part 1 worse than I did with Oboe and Jake. I think Oboe was at robotics today, so he didn't show. After the line came, John put us in the hallway again. We played from the beginning to measure 17.

That's when the worst started.

I stood there, trying to make them break their conversation. "Hey!" I shouted. I pointed to the measures where we were starting at. They refused to listen. Finally, after ten minutes, I finally got them to listen to me. We played a total of around five to seven measures. They took ten times the breaks that the drumline took. The drumline took a lot.

I was slowly getting paranoid. I don't know what to do with these people! They started saying things about how I didn't enforce the "ten pushups if you don't do anything correctly" thing and so finally, Elijah and Eric were getting me so annoyed, I ordered them ten pushups. I actually didn't want to start this rule until band camp, but they deserved it.

After they stopped at six pushups, we got more of the music completed. It was nearing 8:30 and we had less than the first page and a half done. I needed another girl in the pit. The three of them, Elijah, Eric, and Jake, were making stupid jokes. I had to admit—one of them was pretty funny about Elijah and his shoes. He said they were "walking shoes" and couldn't put a crease on the top. Jake and Eric made some pretty funny jokes about that for the rest of the night.

9:00 finally rolled around. Elijah packed up early and I let the rest of the pit pack up. The drumline was already packed up, so why not us? The pit was out the door while Samantha (She's finally back! –happily cheers-) Jeremy, Brandon and I stayed after. I haven't talked to Sam for a while in real life. I spent the whole day today with Brandon and Collin. (Another friend of mine who isn't in band, if you didn't catch on in the last chapter) I haven't seen Jeremy since last line. I'm glad they're in drumline. I don't think I could survive without them.

We talked a bit and I finally went up to John and told him that the pit wouldn't listen. "Hey, John," I said. He was cleaning up some cords.

"Yeah?" John answered. I took a deep breath before saying,

"The pit refuses to listen to me." John looked up.

"Well, there's not much I can do. Just… be selective about your words," he suggested. _Be selective with your words? What does he mean?_ "Don't talk so much, just learn your part." I thought about it for a while.

"Hmm, okay, I'll try that," I said.

"If they don't know their shit while you do, they will pay attention and will listen. I did that when I was center snare. (For something he said, I don't remember… I _think _he said he was in DCI… not sure) Believe it or not, I didn't talk at all. Now you see me babbling up here for three hours. It's weird," John says with a laugh that brings the rest of us to laugh.

"This is going to be an interesting year," I say. We talk some about Eric.

"He finds a spinning triangle amusing!" Jeremy exclaimed while we all laughed and thought back to last year's concert season when he messed up his triangle solo. Honestly, it takes a lot to mess up a triangle solo.

"Eric found _that _amusing?" John asked. We all nodded.

"I have ADHD, so it's pretty normal for me to find things like that amusing. I'm known as insane," Jeremy says and I laugh.

"Yeah, we all knew that," I said. Sam and I went over our plan again. (Freshman orientation tomorrow, I go to her house, we drive back to school for band camp, she comes over to my house, we go to band camp.) It's a master plan that we've been sticking to for about a week.

We head outside and I turn around at the bench. Alex was sitting there. We caught each other's gazes and we both smile at each other. Sam walks to her mom's car, Brandon walks to his moms, and I walk to my dad's. "Bye, Alex!" I said as I walked away. "Bye, Brandon, bye Sam!" I shouted as I opened the car door and waved goodbye to Alex, John, and Jeremy.

I'm not sure if I can survive this season with the pit. Who knew that controlling four boys your age could be so difficult? I'm going to take John's advice. This is going to be one _long _season.

**Hi everyone! **

**Yeah, so today's pit was not productive at **_**all. **_**I was so mad at them I pretty much gave up. I know I probably shouldn't have, but they were so damn annoying. **

**Tomorrow morning (well, technically in six hours) is Freshman Orientation! Yay! :/ I need sleep. It's late and band starts early tomorrow. **

**P.S. sorry this chapter is so short! More will be up in the next few days!**

**Night everyone! ~Tenuto07**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello! **

**Today was a **_**LONG**_** day. Eight hours of band is too long. I know I shouldn't be complaining because there are some schools that do eight hours a day, but I'm not used to it. Overall, today was a good day. I got to hang out with Sam and she is actually currently sitting to my left.**

**Well, better start before I forget!**

**Freshman Orientation and Band Camp, 8/8/12**

Freshman Orientation:

After waking up to Avenged Sevenfold's "_Beast and the Harlot," _I got dressed and grabbed my bag full of band camp stuff. When I pulled into the parking lot, I ran into the building because the section leaders had to be there early. I found the leaders huddled in a corner and I walked over to them.

Rickey, one of our graduated (2011) former members for color guard, came over to me and I gave him a hug. I have known him since I was at least four, so our relationship is like siblings. I turned off my iPod and listened to what the leaders were talking about. Bailey, our only girl drum major, turned around and said, "We have permanent name tags this year. Don't lose this one!" she handed out a bag to each of the leaders with the name of each section on it and a hand drawn picture. I grabbed the percussion bag. Each section had their own design on the bag. The percussion's was green and blue striped. There was a white piece of paper that was labeled "percussion" and a well drawn drawing of a snare drum. "Don't put them on yet! We're going to play a name game!"

"_We're _going to play a name game?" Devin, another drum major said. "Just us?" He turned to me. "Emily! I don't remember your name!" the section leaders and I laughed.

"Not with _us, _with the freshman!" Bailey said as she handed out the rest of the bags. We talked a bit more. I don't know why Mr. W made us come so early. Soon, 8 O'clock rolled around and we as section leaders had nothing accomplished. The freshman and even some section leaders walked in the door.

Mr. W called us to the middle. The band and I usually refer this moment to "story time." The percussion and I sat by the percussion section. Sam L. was sitting on the floor, but he claimed that 8 am was too early to be awake and sitting on the ground. Alex took a seat next to him while I sat in front of Sam. Samantha was to my right. John was sitting next to Sam on the chair, right next to the assistant director, Mrs. C. "Today, we have our adult leaders!" Mr. W said. "There is me! I'll tell you a bit about myself. I've been working at this school for… I think this is my eleventh year here. I also work in the Czech Republic as a conductor, so I brought back a few techniques that I picked up there to use here!"

"That's just great," I mumble to Samantha as we both laugh.

"We also have Mrs. C!" Mrs. C stood up and introduced herself.

"Hello everyone, I work with the pit (yay…) and woodwinds. I like all the sections though! I'm originally a clarinet player," Mrs. C went on. John went next.

"Hey everyone, I'm John O. I'm the percussion instructor. I actually went to this school, so I know exactly what you're going through. I graduated in 2007 and was a center snare for a drum and bugle corps," John said. Mr. W continued.

"Our color guard instructor, Crystal, couldn't make it this morning, you'll see her tonight!" he said as he went over the things we needed for band camp. "This is the magic backpack. You don't get the bag angry, got it?" we all started to laugh. "Here's what we need for band camp," he said as he pulled out his drill book. Soon, he pulled out a pencil, sunscreen, a water bottle, and a pair of sunglasses. "Something that isn't in the backpack and on me is appropriate clothing! Non-open toed shoes, a t-shirt or a tank top, and shorts. You also need a hat!" Mr. W said. He pointed to his cream colored fedora. "It doesn't have to be as cool as this one—made in Ecuador," Mrs. C pointed to me and said,

"Well, Emily's set!" I saw John smirk and I let out a laugh from the line of section leaders. I was wearing a black fedora with a tiny skull and cross bone on it and five silver metal rings piercing the edge of the hat.

Mr. W went through more of what we needed. After that, he wanted to introduce the section leaders. "Since we're going to play the name game, you can say what you lead and play, and the grade you are going into," he said. I hoped he didn't start with my side, seeing as I would go second, but he pointed to Alex, who was to my left.

"I'm the section leader for drumline and I'm going to be a senior," Alex said. I went next.

"I'm the section leader for pit. I usually play the oboe in concert season, but this is marching season so…" I paused for a second then said, "I'm going to be a sophomore." Sam L. went next.

"I'm also the drumline leader and I lead students!" Sam said. We all burst into laughter and then he continued. "I'm going to be a senior!" The rest of the long line continued.

After the introductions are over, Mr. W wanted us to explain what our sections do. "Explain what a drum major is," he said. Devin spoke for the three of the drum majors.

"A drum major is a person who stands up on the podium and moves their hands like a penguin." We laughed some more. I wasn't exactly fond of this year's freshman, (Not just the band, either. Their whole grade was pretty bad…) but I could tell most of them wanted to try hard.

"I hope you have more rhythm than a penguin," Mr. W said and we laughed again.

"I'm going to make him a shirt that says 'rhythmic penguin' on it," Sam said to Alex and me. We all burst into laughter that Mr. W ignored.

"Everyone this is Miranda, (Clarinet section leader) she will be instructing a name game for you guys," Mr. W said as Miranda stood up.

"Hi, everyone! This is a name game I made up. We're going to make a circle, and I will be in the middle. I will walk up to someone, (for instance, it was Kelly, the other clarinet section leader) and say, hello, Kelly! Would you like to join my line?"

"Yes, that would be fine!" Kelly said as Miranda did a dance and said,

"Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly!" This was a weird game, no doubt about it. (The chant sounded a lot better than reading it) We all counted off by 2's. I was a two and so was Samantha. We split the room into two giant circles.

Soon, we gave up on the dancing and names and we ran around the room like idiots. The game was called off because we needed to learn marching basics. "What happens at band camp," Mr. W started and the veterans all finished.

"Stays at band camp!" we shouted. Mr. W instructed us to grab water and other things before heading out to the field. Sam and I walked out together, her being a first time marcher. I apparently missed the memo of section leaders in the front, but my friend, Ariel, (Sax section leader) wasn't up there, either, so I guessed it was okay.

"Section leaders, grab a freshman and head onto the field!" I grabbed Sam by the arm and started laughing. She refused to come with me and that's when Devin walked over to me and picked me up fireman style. I was laughing too hard to argue.

"Wait, she's not a freshman!" Jackson, (Other drum major) shouted over the small crowd. I was placed randomly on a line. We then started basics. I don't usually march, but I knew all my commands from last year's drum major try outs.

We were at it for two hours when Mr. W gave us a ten minute water break. I sat next to Sam and Chong, one of my junior friends who is from China, so he didn't know English very well. Bea joined us and Brandon was there, too. We had water and ate some food I brought. Too soon we were called on to the field and were back to doing basics. I joined the drumline this time way in the back. We did nothing but fool around because by this time, John left to go to a meeting.

Sam L. was balancing his harness on his face. He explained to us that he did that once and it fell off and hit his face. We all laughed while Mr. W was up in the front tapping off on the plastic block.

The line and I pretty much gave up on marching basics and we were fooling around while we marched. Mr. W made us do the box of death: eight counts of marching forward, eight counts of marching right, eight counts of moving backwards, and eight counts of marching left. In the end, you should end up in the same place you started at.

After the "box of death," we had another water break, we grabbed our instruments, and we were back on the field. We marched for another half hour on the field and decided to split up into sections. I joined the drumline and we were talking about where we were going to go eat lunch. Sam and I were hanging out after orientation today, so we had our plans set.

Mr. W called for a march off. He would call off random commands and whoever stayed in the longest would win. I lasted longer than I thought when Jackson tapped my shoulder saying that I was out. I think it was because I wasn't on the line. I wasn't too sure, though.

Mr. W excused the freshman and the rest of us to go home. We talked to Mr. W for a bit before heading out to eat lunch.

Band Camp: Day 1

Sam and I walked into the band room after accomplishing little things at her house. (Like for instance, epically failing at Guitar Hero) We were both half asleep from this morning's march off. (And waking up so early, I was running off of two packages of Crunch bars, a few Tic Tac's, and three hours of sleep) Sam and I went to go find our friend, Olivia W. (Junior) who was a bass clarinet player. She, like more than half the band, hated Mrs. C. We talked for a while about the new season and a few other things. We were waiting for Mr. W to exit the publications room for a drum key. Nate, our former bass 3 player, was using it for Summerfest and the Lions Daze parade, so Sam needed to adjust it.

I was handing out the rest of the name tags. I re-pinned mine to my hat and I handed Matt Oboe's his, and I handed Jeremy his name tag when I saw him walk through the door. We held a conversation when we both… well, our conversation ended. Mr. W called us for story time and we all sat in the front. Sam, Olivia, Sam L, Jeremy, and Alex were sitting by the percussion things again. Mr. W wanted us to introduce the student leaders again, so I was forced to stand up and introduce myself. The drum majors, Devin, Bailey, and Jackson, all went first. Alex went next.

"Hi, I'm Alex and I'm the drumline leader." Sam L. went next.

"Hi everyone! I'm Sam and I'm also the drumline section leader." It was my turn.

"Hey, I'm Emily and I'm pit section leader," I said as I could see all eyes on me. I never liked speaking in front of a huge group of people, but if this is going to be a new group of my family, I would have to speak.

We went on with the introductions and Miranda came up with a new name game to play. This time, instead of running around like idiots, we would all stand in a circle, (two, depending what team you were on. Well, actually it started as one big circle but then we cut it down to go faster) and there would be one person in the middle. That person would walk up to someone while the person they walked up to would have to say the names of the two people on their left and right before the person in the middle could say "bibitibibitibop." This game was almost as weird as this morning's game…

I took my place next to Alex and Sam L. Luckily; nobody came up to me for the first round. I forgot to mention that if the person in the middle says "bop," then we would have to rearrange. Someone said "bop," and I quickly shifted a few people over. This time, Devin and Harrison (Other sax section leader, senior) were next to me. _Devin, Harrison, that's all I had to remember…_ I thought to myself. Nobody came up to me for this round, either. Devin took my hat and put it on. "How do I look?" he asked. I laughed and said,

"Wow, Devin, _fancy!" _The game came to an end and we all pulled our instruments out and practiced. Of course, Mrs. C pulled the pit into the hallway. I dragged everything out there with my pit friends and we got started on part 1.

We played part 1 for pretty much the whole time. We didn't take breaks. Eventually, the whole pit knew at least 95% of the song. For the last fifteen minutes of band camp today, we played with the band. Megan H, the saxophone/pianist, was off beat with the drum majors. Megan was my rival last year from the drum major competition. In the end, Devin was first because he was drum major last year, Jackson was second because he almost made it last year, but Devin won instead, and it was very close between Bailey and me. I'll admit that I'm proud Bailey won. She'll make a very good drum major with the talent she's got; but the saxophone section just lost a very good player. Megan was last and her performance wasn't the greatest. I know she was probably just as nervous as I was, but that's just how life rolls. I guess I got stuck in pit for a reason. I was guaranteed a section leader spot, though.

Band camp came to an end for the day. The entire freshman group survived. We packed up and at the last minute, I found out there was a section leader meeting. "Sam, there's a meeting?" I ask Sam L.

"Yeah, but you probably didn't hear because Jeremy and I were playing," Sam said. "You can blame it on us!" I laughed.

"Sam and Jeremy, this is your entire fault!" Jeremy looked up with a confused face and continued to put his tenor away. Sam laughed and sat down at the meeting. Jeremy waited outside for Sam, who was his ride home.

"How did the first day of band camp go?" Mr. W asked as we all got settled in. We talked for a bit more when I zoned out. Mr. W didn't seem to see me there. It was nothing entirely important, either. Soon, Bailey brought up our spirit day week next week.

"Wednesday is fairy princess day!" she said and we all laughed. (At least I _think _it was Wednesday)

"All the guys need to show their inner fairy princess!" Niki (Sophomore), a good friend of mine, an oboe player like me, and the guard captain said. We both laughed and someone suggested to change it to Harry Potter day. I personally love Harry Potter over fairy princesses. "Can I be Katniss Everdeen?" (_The Hunger Games) _Niki asked. "Can I bring in a bow and arrow?" We all laughed again and she finished, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

"We'll do a split day, a fairy princess movie day," Mr. W said. In the Charger Band, we have a new theme every day of the week of band camp. They change every year, but I think every year we always have a crazy day. Last year, we also had a fairy princess day. It was funny to see all the guys dress up in pink tutus. I can also recall a few fairy wands from the drumline. Every section is expected to dress up. Whatever section dresses up the most by the end of the week wins the grand prize. Last year, the clarinets won.

They talked about a party for the band. Apparently it was going to be held at Sam L's house. "We're going to have a pancake party! We're going to have pancakes, bacon, and sausage. We would have eggs, but those are too expensive," Sam said as we burst into more laughter. We talked a little more.

Mr. W dismissed us and Samantha and I got into my car. She needed to fill out her dot book.

Tonight is going to be a _long _night.

**So, I'm sorry for not updating this last night. I was extremely tired and I was helping Sam with her dot book. Eventually, we gave up. **

**I still yet have to write chapter… the next one! This chapter was very, very, very long. It usually does not take up 6 pages in my Word document. I think I have like 35 pages total for the whole story. This is the second longest story ever! And this will also be the very first story of mine that I'll actually complete with more than 1 chapter! Two chapters in one day? I'm going to go crazy. Well, off to write today's chapter! **

**~Tenuto07**

**Hello everyone!**

**Today was crazy. It was definitely more stressful than any other day in band so far, so I hope you stick with me for today! **

**I'm really, extremely tired right now. I need to write this before I forget and the new day comes because writing two chapters in one day is hell. (As learned from last night)**


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm literally going to fall asleep one day typing this. It may very well be tonight. I am so dead tired. I'm going to try the best I can with this chapter. Everything happened in a blur. Let's start before I fall asleep!**

**Band Camp: Day 2**

It was raining out today. Sam and I wished for a downpour so she didn't have to march outside. Of course, no matter what, they would have to go outside at some point. Band directors have connections with _everyone; _even the weather gods.

I handed the nametags out to everyone in my section. There was the usual noise of everyone's instruments and talking. Mr. W called for a story time again. He was talking about the parent meeting tonight, that my parents didn't attend, and the schedule on the board. There was only nine weeks until State. (For those of you who don't know, State is the biggest competition of the season. There are other names for it, but we refer to it as State) Nine weeks. That's really scary.

Story time came to an end and we all set up. The percussion was supposed to meet in the FAC lobby, a place where Olivia got an office referral because she was staring at the clouds. I went to go ask Mr. W if that included the pit as well. Usually we're referred to as just the "pit" and the "drumline," but when it comes to all of us, we're called percussion. (Okay, that whole story was self explanatory, but oh well) Still, I had to ask Mr. W if that included us as well. I walked up to him, who was talking to Eric, a junior clarinet/sax player. "Hey, Mr. W, do you want the pit in the FAC too?"

"Ah, yes. Actually, go ask John!" Mr. W said. I nodded and ran off to go find John. I couldn't see him anywhere. I walked up to Jeremy and tapped his shoulder twice.

"Have you seen John?"

"No; well, yeah I have today, but not now."

"Thanks," I said and I walked up to Sam with his tenor on. "Sam, have you seen John?" Right as I asked him, John opened the door. "John, do you want the pit in there as well?" I asked him. He seemed paranoid. (Not at me, just everyone)

"I don't know…" he mumbled and I couldn't understand some of the rest. His tone was clear—go and get the answer from someone else. I turned around to see the line hitting random notes. "_Stop _hacking!" John yelled at the line. He startled me and I ran away.

We set up in the hallway and started practicing. Mrs. C went through an exercise that Mr. W went through. Movement 2 was in 9,8 time, 6,8 time, and 12,8 time. We would count up to nine and every time her palms faced the ground, we had to count in our heads. When they came back up, we would count where we left off in our heads. Easy enough.

I was very wrong. Mrs. C was one of the worst conductors ever. (Honestly, she's nice and all, but she's a horrible teacher/conductor)

We were in sectionals for hours. Finally, at 7:30, we called for a break. The pit and I headed inside the band room and outside. "I'm really proud of the pit," Mrs. C said. "I'll treat you guys to anything you guys want at the bake sale."

The color guard bake sale was every year, always during band camp. Everything was fifty cents each. I grabbed a rice krispie bar. "Thank you," the pit and I said to Mrs. Casper. She smiled and said,

"No problem. You guys have been working hard." Mrs. C said. _That was really nice of her. _I thought. I shove the rest of my rice krispie in my mouth, head to the bathroom to wash my hands, and head back outside. Mrs. C called for the break to end and we headed back into the hallway to practice.

Soon, Mr. W was calling us back inside. Every day at 8:00, the band has a full rehearsal. The pit and I played what we knew. They played part two, which the drumline didn't have to play. (In fact, in their drill, they stay there and don't even mark time)

The day came to an end and I headed outside to see Bea working at the bake sale with Devin standing there. Devin took my hat and unclipped my nametag. (I was _supposed _to hand it in to my section leader, but I _am_ the section leader… so I just keep mine)

My dad honked his horn and I got a little mad at him. I don't see the guard or Devin very often at camp because the pit is stranded in the hallway. I quickly rushed to my car and got in.

**Sorry this chapter was so short! I don't really remember anything that happened that day. Yesterday's (Friday's chapter, which is coming up next) chapter is going to be better.**

**Have a good one! ~Tenuto07**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello!**

**This chapter will be WAYYYYYYY shorter than my other one cause being the slacker I am, (I can imagine Sam telling me right now, "You're such a slacker!") I still yet have to post it.**

**Well yesterday was a lot of fun. We got through a lot. I'll write what I remember. **

**Let's start!**

**Band Camp: Day 3**

The week has been odd so far. Wednesday was our warmest day of the week, (80 degrees) Thursday was raining, and today was oddly cold. (70ish degrees) I brought a jacket with me. (Well, it's more of a windbreaker. I bought it specifically for marching season)

I head to the doors of the band room. I was early because Sam wanted me there so I could learn about dot books and such. We were all locked out. Mr. W wasn't there yet. There stood Sam, Emma, (clarinet) Rickey, Alex, (She is a girl and is in guard) Sami, (Guard) and another girl whom I didn't know. She was a freshman guard girl. Not much later, I found out her name was Sam!

A few minutes later, I see a red car pull up. A janitor steps out and offers to open the band room for us. We walk in and have story time after Mr. W called for it. They were talking about entertainment books. Story time came to an end and we were on the field.

**Okay, so I'm sorry for not updating this. I got like 1000x lazier than I was before band camp. So we're going to skip to the end of Friday because that's the most interesting part! And besides, we only practiced.**

Mr. W called for a section leader meeting. We all sat down and listened to what he had to say. "Thank you guys for the hard work this week. Bailey, take it away," he said. (I'm pretty sure he said some more stuff, but I really don't remember anything)

"For spirit week next week, we need a winning prize. Any ideas?" Bailey asked. Spirit week consisted of dressing up to the theme of each day. Monday was PJ day. Tuesday was team spirit day. Wednesday was movie character day. Thursday is crazy day. Friday is section T-shirt day. (Your section picks a color and you gotta wear that color shirt)

"Percussion calls white!" Sam shouts after Bailey said all the themes.

"There needs to be a losing team prize!" Matt C, the brass caption head said.

"Hey, I like that idea," Mr. W said.

"The losing team has to carry the whole band's instruments onto the field for the rest of the season!" someone offered from the back. We all got silent.

"Ooohhhhhh….." We all said. "We like that!" everyone shouted happily. Nobody wants to lose now…

"Good idea, now we need a wining prize," Mr. W said.

"Pizza!" half of us shouted.

"I want cake! We _need _cake!" Sam shouted.

"Pizza and cake, there's our winning prize," Bailey said.

"Wait!" someone else shouted.

"What?" Mr. W asked. We all went silent again.

"The winning team should have pizza and cake and have the authority to pie your section leader in the face!" Michael S, the low brass and low reeds said. All of us smiled and agreed to the thought.

Next week is going to be an _interesting _week.

**So I'm really, really, really, really~ sorry for not posting this any sooner. Gahh, I'm so bad at this stuff. Band camp has really been getting to me lately. I still try to make time for my non-band friends as well. I don't think I'll put in Monday's chapter because it wasn't very important. **

**Onto the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

** Hello!**

** So I've decided that I am only going to write today's chapter because nothing really interesting happens at all… well besides the fact we played "How many pit members can you fit into a band locker" We stopped after Eric.**

** Well, let's start!**

** Band Camp: Day 6**

Today was band pictures day. We were to arrive at 3:30 and take pictures outside in the middle of August in polyester uniforms. Not my idea of fun, but what had to be done must be done. (That sorta rhymed!)

After getting into my ten-thousand degree uniform, I put on the black shako and the matching plume. The pit and I were yelled at for joining the drumline in their drumline-only line, but Mr. W specifically told me to tell the pit to join them there. I walked to the end of the line. (It goes by height and I'm super short, so I was the last. And I was too lazy to measure) There were two freshmen in front of me, both Saxes. I was thinking of starting a conversation, but I wasn't in the mood to talk. Instead, I stood there, thinking about random things.

Mr. W was walking down the line. "Ah, poor Emily stuck in the back of the line!" I laughed.

"That's fine by me, Mr. W!" I said and he smiled. As we were called up, I took my place next to freshman, Carl S, and two guard girls. One was named Bailey; Matt Oboe's girlfriend. They were talking about tomorrow night's band party at Sam L's house.

We took one too many pictures. Sam was making funny, random and stupid comments about the pictures. "Drum on this side!" the cameraman pointed to Sam. "Can you move your drum to your right a little bit?"

"Sure, but I could always get out of the picture if it makes it any better!" Sam said. My half of the band laughed. The cameraman took several pictures and let us go. Now, they were taking section and individual photos. The drumline (Not including Brandon or Nick) did a run to Subway. Nick and I talked for a bit until they returned. Eric, being the idiot that he is, got the percussion to be one of the first. The rest of the band went back inside. Since nobody was there, we weren't allowed to go.

After our whole picture ordeal, we headed back inside to play another ice breaker. Sam pushed me out the back door to ditch the game. She stopped us after she heard Mr. W. "Where do you think you guys were going?" he asked as we walked casually to go sit down. We smiled and sat down. Sam, Olivia, Elijah, and the whole drumline ditched the game to go eat in the middle of the instructions on how to play the game. (It was Never Have I Ever)

"Where's Elijah?" Mrs. C asked.

"There's a whole group of people outside eating," Jake said. Mrs. C made a start for the door. Just then, Mr. W counted people off and got up to go play.

"Mrs. C!" I shouted. She turned around. "Can I go out and as Sam a question?" she gave me a blank expression and said,

"Sure, be fast about it!" It was more of a lie because I didn't need to ask her a question. I just wanted my food. I look to my left and see nobody there. When I look to my right, I see Sam, Olivia, Elijah, and Emma all sitting on the ground, eating lunch. I take a seat next to Sam and Elijah, grab some food, and shove it into my mouth.

"I hope you know, Elijah, that Mrs. C knows you're out here," I said as I take a cracker and eat it.

"Does she know the rest of us are out here?" Sam asked. I shake my head.

"Only Elijah," I say. Right then, all the groups come out and play the game. The "no eating in the band room/hallway" policy has been broken by us.

"Oh, crap!" Sam said and she shoved the empty Lunchable box into her lunch bag because a random officer appeared. The school is being stricter and yelling at Mr. W about us eating in the band room. "We need to play the game guys! Let's play the modified version. Don't stand because I don't want to stand. Just say 'never have I ever' and quickly make something up!" Sam said as we all agreed. We ate the rest of our lunch.

Soon, Mr. W came out. My back was facing towards the door, so I didn't see anything except for him walking away. Sam told me that he saw us. I was sure he'd have us do pushups for breaking his rule. A few minutes later, he walked over to us and said, "What's this?!" we let out a laugh and he smiled, too. The game ended and the band went to the field. The pit and I set up.

We played through everything for a few hours. Soon, Mrs. C said that we could have a break and the band had ice cream sandwiches on the field for us. The pit and I ran out the door to get our ice cream. Matt and I walked next to each other while talking. "I bet you $5 that they will be gone once we reach them," Matt said as I agreed.

Once we reached Bailey, she said, "Sorry guys, I'm out."

"I called it!" Matt said as we turned to Paula M, an '11 graduate from color guard.

"Paula should have some," Bailey said. Paula was handing out the last few ice cream sandwiches out to some of the band. "Paula!" she didn't hear Bailey as she handed a second out to Kevin. (Clarinet, junior) "PAULA!" she shouted again. "Give some to the pit! They didn't get one yet!" Paula stopped handing them out and held the box out to the pit and me. "KEVIN! No more for you!" Kevin let out a smile and walked away with his second sandwich.

I ate mine and Matt grabbed one for Jake. We headed back to the band room when Jake said he didn't want it. Matt and I split it and got back to practicing.

After many more hours of practice, the pit and I were stranded outside in the dark. The only light was illuminating from the parking lot light. Our stands were turned so we could barely read the music. Soon, the whole band joined us outside. Kevin, Elijah, Molly, (flute, senior) and a few others joined us for an intense game of Ninja. I was the first one out. (I suck at that game) soon, it was an intense battle between Kevin and another girl, whom I didn't know. They were good. Really good. It was the best game of Ninja I've ever seen. Every time she struck, Kevin moved just in time. She did the same. Finally, Kevin was struck out. The small audience that we had gathered let out some shouts. I handed Kevin his dot book that fell out of his pocket. I gave the girl a high five for a good game. We got back into formation to play the show.

Jackson climbed on the main podium and shouted, "Mark time, mark!" I missed my entrance because I rely on the piano, which has almost the same part as me. The woodwinds played and the drumline silent and counting. _Wait… I'm outside, no piano, PLAY! _I thought as I picked up where we were. I was the only one playing the main melody besides Matt and I played it the best I have ever done. (Dynamics and all!) Jackson cut us off and Mr. W used his microphone connected to Dr. Beat to tell us how we did.

"Pit, nice job. Emily, very good!" Mr. W said. I smiled and gave him two thumbs up. We continued on until 9 O'clock came by and we headed inside. I got many compliments about the pit's work today. Soon, as everyone left, I was standing outside next to Jeremy, Sam, Ariel, and Michelle. (Sax, sophomore) Jeremy was talking about his love for "Death Rave" music. I didn't know there was such thing until he showed me. Soon, his mom showed up and he left. Ariel and Michelle left after that. Sam and I were stuck there with a few other people. We helped Alexi, or Lexi as most people call her put some flags into a car. (She's in guard, obviously as I said flags… she's also a sophomore) Soon my dad pulled around and I waved goodbye to Sam and Lexi.

I wanted the pit to improve as much as possible. I am very proud of them up to now. They have been working really hard and we actually sound pretty decent. I can't wait until the first football game to see how well we do as a group! (Football game is the 24th)

There's only eight weeks until State.

**As promised, a longer chapter. I hope you actually enjoy reading my time in band as much as I enjoy it! Thanks for sticking with me this far in!**

** Reviews are much appreciated! **

** ~Tenuto07**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello everyone!**

** Well, I did a lot of shouting today. I'm gonna start cause I've got nothing to say.**

** Band Camp: Day 8**

5:00 my phone read. I quickly jumped out of the car and ran into the band room, only to find Kevin changing behind the timpani into a pink shirt. (Clarinets were pink) Sam, Emma, Olivia and I were laughing at Kevin while we were forced to sit down for story time. Today was the last spirit day. (Percussion was black by the way; I don't know when they changed it from white to black, but I was told black)

After story time, we all went outside. I gathered the pit and we went under the awning. After a good half hour, we pushed everything to the field. Mr. W was shouting commands at us from Dr. Beat. "Front ensemble, especially Emily, you're dragging!"

"Sorry, Mr. W!" I shouted to him from his spot on the bleachers. We played through movement two some more. Eventually, he called for sectionals. That's how it's been every day: story time, on the field, sectionals, full rehearsal, leave. During sectionals, I walked away to refill my water bottle and grab some food. I was talking to Elijah, who was standing by the door. I walked back to the pit and found Mrs. C going on a fifteen minute rant about how we weren't improving. I zoned out and she turned to me. She said a few random words about something (I wasn't listening….) and so I nodded and looked serious. (It's honestly the best way to do it XD)

"I'm leaving you in charge, Emily. Get something done," Mrs. C said and she walked away. The pit and I nodded. After she walked into the band room, I turned to them and started giving them orders of what to play. I don't want to sound too pushy or mean, but I just wanted to sound good. I, like so many others in our band, don't exactly care for what Mrs. C has to say. (I'm sorry, she's a great person in general, but she's a _horrible _teacher)

"Movement two, measure twenty-eight!" I shout. Elijah is not behind his bass drum and gong. Jake was sitting on the ground talking to Elijah. Eric is wandering off to nowhere. Matt was the only one practicing. I sighed. "PIT, LISTEN UP!" I shouted even louder. They stop to look at me, and continue talking. _Be selective about your words… _John's voice rang in my head. (By the way, John is on vacation for four days, as the line tells me) "Matt, you and me, measure twenty-eight," I tell him. He smiles and nods. I count off and we get in about a measure and a half when Eric stops me.

"Hey, wait, I was waiting for you to start," Eric says.

"If you guys would actually _listen _to me, maybe you would have known when to start!" I yell at him. Finally, the group pulls together when Bailey walks out taking tally for all the sections of the spirit day. I quickly take my fedora off and drop it on the ground. Matt wasn't wearing any black, so I let him borrow my hat. He bends down, and stands up innocently with a new hat on that has obviously been mine. (It's my band camp hat; that's my trademark and everyone knows me by my hat) Bailey gives us 100% and she played Elijah's gong part while I counted off with the pit and played. Eventually, Bailey conducts us. (She is the main conductor for part two) Bailey helps us out a lot with our counting issues. Soon, she is called back to conduct the woodwinds and brass with Devin and Jackson.

I go back and tell the pit to play part 3. It's the only part that we have trouble with. Movement one is down perfectly note wise, not dynamic wise. Part two is getting along better than three. "Part three, guys!" I say. For once, they actually listen and we play through until we get lost in measure twenty-four. I cut them off. They are still playing, especially Eric, who is playing very obnoxious rolls. "STOP!" I shout. They all cut off and stop. "Where was everyone?"

"Around twenty-fiveish," Matt says.

"Twenty-Sevenish," Eric says.

"Twenty-fiveish," Jake says.

"Are you kidding, I was at twenty-nine!" Elijah says and we start laughing.

"Just count slower!" I say. I had to admit, I think we slowed down a lot. Elijah was the only one still going the same pace.

Eventually, the pit (besides Matt; he's the only one who listens to me) goes back to their normal selves: Not listening to a word I say and getting very off topic. I could swear the drumline and the color guard, which was all the way on the field, could hear me shouting. I see the drumline walk past me. Samantha is first, followed by Marie and Ben. Sam L. was quickly following behind them along with Brandon and Alex. They all went into the band room. I waved to them, and Alex, being the sweet, nice personality that he has, says hi to me back. (I'm serious; Alex has to be one of the most caring people I know. His girlfriend is a lucky girl)

I'm still shouting at the pit, when Jeremy, the last of the line to walk back, walks past me, gives me _the look, _stops, hands me one of his drumsticks, and says, "Use this to hit them." He turned to the pit. "If you don't listen to her, I will shove this drumstick up your ass." He pointed it more toward Eric, whom he didn't have the best relationship with. What a great guy he is.

"Why, thank you," I say as I take the drumstick from him. He walks to the door as I watch him set down the music stand, his binder, the tenors, and takes of his harness. He grabs the other drumstick.

"'I will shove this drumstick up your ass!" Eric mocks him. Jake laughed. I shot my best death glare I could at Eric.

"_Don't you dare_ make fun of him," I said. Eric smirked at me. He thinks that just because he's in football, and a lot stronger than me, he doesn't have the need to listen to me. I swear I will kill him later.

"HEY!" Jeremy roars at the pit. (I'm serious, it was a legit _roar. _I didn't even know that he could make such a noise) "Listen to her! She is your section leader and we are a band. We work together as one," he finishes. The pit is quiet now. "Where are we starting?" he asks as he turns to me.

"Movement three, measure twenty-four," I said. I click my sticks together to make a simple 4/4 pattern. (Are you not supposed to click mallets together? I do all the time, but I read somewhere that you're not supposed to... Oh well, that's too bad for Mike) Jeremy picks up the beat and I count off. "One, two, three, four, one, two, ready, go!" I say and we all start at twenty-four. I sort of half assed my way through everything; I don't exactly know my part, so I played random notes. After we fell apart, I cut them off and Jeremy stopped clicking the beat. "Let's try that again," I say. Just as we're playing, Mrs. C walks out. She looks a lot happier than she was before.

"Thank you for helping out, Jeremy," she says. I love Jeremy, he's such a great friend.

"No problem." Jeremy says as she tells him what to do. He walks up to my stand and starts talking again. "We don't want a… crap, I can't swear," he says.

"That is true. I'll be back," Mrs. C says. With that, she walks away again.

"Jeremy," I say. He turns back to me. "You know there's no swear jar this year, right?" The swear jar was pretty much a jar that people put twenty-five cents in every time they were caught swearing. The line and I joke about how the drumline already paid their debt because of the $80 they made at Summerfest.

"Oh, well then, we don't want a shitty pit, guys. We want to sound good. Don't be like last year," Jeremy lectures us.

"Last year was just plain _bad," _I said. He nods as we both remembered how we barely pulled through. Just then, Matt M, a tuba and a good friend of mine, runs out of the band room.

"Help me, guys; I don't want to sing _I'm A Little Teapot," _Matt says. That's another rule in the Charger Band. If you lose something in the band room or forget it on the field, you have to sing _I'm A Little Teapot _in front of the whole band with motions. The second time you forget, you owe the band food. The third time… well, I don't really remember. It's never happened. "I forgot my binder on the field and now I have to hide from Mr. W!" Matt says. All the pit, Jeremy and I do is laugh.

"What part are we doing?" Jeremy asks. He technically wasn't supposed to be out here, but they were doing movement two inside, which required no drumline.

"Movement three, I think," Matt says. Three has a giant drum break in the middle. Bailey quickly calls the pit inside and we start moving everything inside. We play through the whole show backwards. Mr. W promised us that we could end at 8:30 today because of our hard work. At the end of the day, we played the pep band version of _Bad Romance. _We pack up and Bailey announces the winner of the spirit week.

"The winner of the spirit week are… THE CLARINETS!" You can hear screams from the section. "And the losing section… is the PERCUSSION!"I let out a loud sigh. Now we have to carry the band's stuff onto the field for the rest of the season. The drumline is also blaming the pit for not dressing up, so they won't help us out.

I offer to take Jeremy's stand as he puts his tenor away. It's the least I can do since he helped me out a lot today. I put it away and head outside. I talk to Chong, my good friend who was a saxophone. Chong was born and raised in China. He moved here two years ago and is currently learning English. I help him out from time to time.

My dad comes almost thirty minutes later, so I hop in the car and head home.

**I am very depressed that the percussion lost. Oh well, that's what we get. Band camp ends on Wednesday! Wow, time flies.**

** Please review! And thank you to all that has. It means a lot.**

** By the way, if you're interested in listening to the show I'm playing: "Lunar Phases" here's the link: (take out the spaces)**

** www. keypoulanmusic mbofi /lunarphases**

** ~Tenuto07**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey, all!**

** Hope your week has been less hectic as mine. I've been meaning to write other chapters, but I've been too busy to. Band camp has finally came to an end, which means there will be less chapters up now… well maybe… I don't know. **

** Oh yeah, if you actually tried the link in the last chapter, as you can see, it didn't work. So, we'll try again. Spaces again!**

** : / / w w w. / s**

** That looks pretty! :D**

**I think for all my readers out there, you'll really enjoy this chapter because, well, it's the last day of band camp and we always have a little fun. –Evil Grin- I don't want to keep you guys waiting, so we'll start!**

** Band Camp: Day 11 [Last day (8/22/12)]**

I got out of the car after my mom drove Michelle (did I explain who she was already? It's 6:52AM and I'm running off of 2 hours of sleep… I don't remember. She's an alto sax, sophomore) and me to school. We exited the car and walked up to the table where a band mom was passing out the show shirts. This year, they were black instead of the usual red.

The design, made by no other than Connie D herself, (Cari's older sister, flute, senior I think) was all the phases of the moon in a half circle on the top, saying "Lunar Phases" in a cool font right under it. The picture was reflected, so it had all the phases in a circle and "Lunar Phases" was a reflection. The back, which always consists of the band director, percussion instructor, color guard instructor, section leaders/caption heads, the guard, and the band itself, is all printed in white font in a large circle, closely resembling a full moon. 

When I walked inside, I quickly spotted Sam in a bright red shirt outside the band room doors that lead to the hallway, holding a small sandwich bag filled with apples. I walk over to her as I threw my bag down in the giant pile of belongings. "Hey, Sam," I said as I joined her in the hall, carrying my T-shirt along like everyone else.

"Hey," she said as she shoved another apple slice into her mouth. "This show shirt is going to turn me into a toasted marshmallow; it's all black!" she exclaimed while I let out a laugh.

"Least your hair isn't black," I said to her. Let's do a quick paragraph about what I look like. In this chapter, I wore my white Hamilton Girls Charger Basketball shirt. My usual attire, which consisted of either a band/school shirt or some video game shirt, black or blue plaid Bermuda shorts, black socks with black tennis shoes, my black fedora, eight bracelets, and a pair of small gold hoop earrings that I have been wearing since I was two. Not to mention that my hair is black and my eyes are dark brown. (Asians, you know?) I don't intend to look "Goth" in any way; I just like the color black. As you read in previous chapters, I am very short for my age… I'm like 5' tall… Anyways…

"You've got a good point," Sam said but then added, "but my bass drum is black and the harness is even worse." She's got it hard, I can tell you that. "Come on, let's go change." I followed her and Olivia, who has shown up later, into the girl's bathroom to go and change into our new shirts. I was going to regret wearing a black undershirt.

After we got our cool looking, but extremely warm show shirts on, Mr. W called for story time. "Wow, all of you guys look intimidating in these black T-shirts! Thank you for all of your hard work these past few weeks," Mr. W said. "I really enjoy working with this group of students. You've gone a far way. Don't think that means to quit working, though; I expect you to keep striving for better work. This show is going to be a good one. Now, let's get everyone onto the field and let's start working!" The band happily stood up and started moving in an instant. I gathered the pit and told them to get everything onto the field ASAP.

As I was pushing the marimba out the door, a mother, accompanied by her two children, walked in front of me. "Oh, careful, guys, you don't want to run into that xylophone!" _THIS IS A MARIMBA, PEOPLE, GET IT RIGHT! _I said clearly in my mind. I pushed it out onto the field.

When everything was set up onto the field, the band and I practiced a bit. "Front ensemble; pit!" Mr. W called from his stand in the bleachers. "Emily, we need more confidence at the end of song two! Put your all into it!" I nodded and Bailey counted off again. We practiced this until 6:30.

At 6:30, I ran all the way across the field to meet up with Sam and Olivia after I met up with Leah, the former drum major graduate of '12. She was one of my good friends from last year and it was sad to see her graduate. We walked into the band room and out into the hallway to get water and use the bathroom. After our little adventure, we headed back into the band room. I walked to the percussion corner where Elijah and Jeremy were standing. Jeremy looked exhausted and you could see his sweat in the shape of his harness on his stomach. We started talking about red drumline tape that I found on the ground to tape some xylo mallets. Eventually, our conversation stopped and the three of us walked to the drum kit.

I saw Sam L. playing the drum kit. Jeremy and Alex were next to him, playing a few random things. I sat myself in a chair lying around and Samantha took a seat on my left leg. After a few minutes, she made my leg fall asleep, making it feel funny when I moved it.

The room was considerably quiet when Sam L. hit the bottom tom drum twice quickly. Alex finished off the beat, making it sound like the first few beats to _Crazy Train. _"Just because I hit a tom with two eighth notes, does not automatically make the song _Crazy Train!" _Sam exclaimed as he walked out to go back outside. The remainder of the band and I walked back to the field.

After out on the field, I saw John fixing up a bass drum. "Hey, John," I said as he used his drum key to turn the little metal screw like things on the side. (I don't know what they're called at the moment, so just bear with me)

"Hello, Emily, how are you?" John asked.

"I'm pretty well, how about you?" I replied.

"Eh, I'm alright. I just took an hour and a half car ride," he said.

"Sounds like fun," I said sarcastically. He smirked and let out a laugh.

"Oh, _very _fun, you know?" John said and I laughed with him.

"Okay, guys, hurry back! Opening set!" Mr. W said through Dr. Beat's loud speaker. He has a set of headphones where he can talk into and we can all hear him over the mic. It's pretty neat, until you find him yelling at you. Mr. W can point from everyone, to your section, to just you out. It's crazy how he can do that. Maybe it's a gift you get when you become a band director.

7:00 marked the time when we had a parent preview. My best friend, Sarah, who didn't attend Hamilton, decided to come and watch me play today. I didn't see her anywhere in sight. There were a lot of people here, though. We played march off, which lasted a total of eight minutes and twenty-nine seconds. It was between Cari and Michelle, whom was crowned victor of the best marcher in band camp. What a great way to celebrate a birthday! (Happy birthday, Michelle! And the way Cari lost was pretty funny:

Mr. W: Detail to the ready!

Devin: -hitting plastic block-

Mr. W: Detail, atten hut!

Cari and Michelle: hut!

Mr. W: Mark time, mark!

Cari and Mi: -marking time-

Mr. W: Detail, right hace!

Michelle: -right haces-

Cari: -left haces- ah, damn it! –walks off field—)

The band ran to one end of the field to march on, just like a competition. The pit and I were facing forward, mallets in hand, arms crossed behind our backs. We looked up at the audience. As the band marched onto the field and made their first set—a giant circle with the full guard in the middle, they took their places and stood at attention. "Emily!" I heard Emma whisper behind me. I didn't want to turn around. "Emily!" Emma said again. I turned my back a bit. "My sunglasses are by your feet; don't crush them!" she said. I looked down. Sure enough, there was a pair of sunglasses just inches away from the line of the field. It was too far back for me to crush. I nodded ever so slightly and leaned forward again.

"Drum majors, Bailey B, Jackson P, and Devin S, is your band ready?" Mr. W said, imitating a judge's voice at a competition. The drum major's done their salute and ran onto the podium. "You may take the field in the exhibit performance." We all smiled at Mr. W. Jackson had song one, so he shouted,

"Band horns, up!" My mallets were in playing position since I played on the first beat of the song. Jackson counted off and we were off playing. I saw John and Mrs. C sitting in the grass. I felt intimidated by them more than the audience. I didn't drag in part 1 like I usually do, and Clair De Lune went almost perfectly. Movement three was a different story. The pit and I didn't know it, so we didn't have the confidence in playing it. As much as I wanted to play the last few runs in the show, I couldn't because I didn't know how. Our show went very well and the four instructors were very proud. As the audience was giving us one more round of applause, Mr. W silenced them.

"Now, I'd like to introduce our student leaders. If you would all come up with your instruments, that would be great," Mr. W said as I gave one glance to Matt. He gave me an encouraging smile and I smiled back. I passed Eric and he said,

"Take your marimba, Emily!"

"Shut up," I said quietly as I slowly made my way up to the front, right next to Ariel. I probably should have grabbed a pair of mallets or something to show off my section, but I didn't think fast enough.

"We'll start with the drumline; please hold your applause for the end," Mr. W said. He pointed to Sam. "This is Sam L, the drumline leader." Everyone started clapping anyways. "Alright, we'll clap for each one. This is Alex L, also the drumline leader!" He made his way down the line. "This is Ariel P, the saxophone student leader," my turn was next. "This is Emily T, the pit student leader!" I could feel everyone's eyes on me as I smiled for them. Erin was next. "Here we have Erin P, the color guard co-captain!" Erin smiled and did a top hat bow. We all laughed. After the line was finished, Devin took the loud speaker mic and started talking to the audience in it.

"We had a spirit week last week and the drum majors and I took a vote to see how many sections would dress up, according to percentage," Devin said. Mr. W pulled on Devin's hand to talk into the mic.

"We are sorry to have your children dressing up in crazy clothing in which they should have probably not left the house in!" The audience, band, and I all laughed. He let Devin take the rest.

"For this year, we decided to have a winning and losing prize! The losing prize was to take the band's instruments onto the field for the rest of the season! (In which they have forgotten about, so shhh!) And the winning prize was to have pizza and have the honor to pie your section leader in the face! The percussion lost, and the clarinets won! Clarinets, get up here!" I saw Bailey sitting there with a million pie plates and at least 6 bottles of Redi Whip whipped cream. (Used as our "pies" because it's easy to clean off and such… and pies can get expensive!)

Each clarinet took a pie from Bailey. Miranda and Kelly put on rain ponchos so their clothes wouldn't get dirty. Each person got to choose who was to get pied, and Miranda took the most blows. We all laughed as each one got a face full of whipped cream. Devin started talking again. "Since the three of us are drum majors, we were also in the competition! We had a deal that if we got 100% and no less, we'd be able to pie Mr. W in the face! We maintained a perfect score for all five days, so therefore, we can pie him!" The audience cheered. What Mr. W didn't know and the rest of the band did, was that he wasn't getting pied by _one _drum major. Instead, he was getting pied by all _three. _He backed up a bit as Devin, Jackson and Bailey inched closer and closer to him. They all counted to three and pied Mr. W directly into the face. (I got this _all _on video! It went on Facebook –evil grin and laugh—) Everyone ran closer to join the section leader line and started cheering.

"That's it, folks, there's cake inside, please join us!" Mr. W said as he wiped some of the whipped cream off his face and onto the grass. The audience cheered and left the stands to join in for some cake and soda. Mr. W asked for a towel, so I offered him the one in my locker from last season when Mike claimed to use them for "drying off instruments when they got wet in the rain." After our show when it rained only on us, he requested everyone had towels. It never rained on us once for the rest of the season after that. "If you get me one, I'll give you an automatic A+." I couldn't argue with that, even if it was a joke. I sprinted from the field, past the drumline, across the parking lot, and into the band room. I was out of breath while I tore apart my locker looking for the old rag. Once I found it, I sprinted all the way back, right past Sam and Jeremy, who yelled,

"Yeah, GO, EMILY!" I almost fell in a random ditch, but I regained my speed as I tossed the towel to Mr. W and collapsed on top of the marimba.

"What's wrong with you?" Eric asked in his usual "Eric" tone. There are absolutely no words to describe this boy. It's always just "Eric."

"Sprinted… from… here to… band room… and back…" I panted as he offered to take the marimba. I nodded and walked back with Elijah's binder and a stand. "SAM!" I shouted when I saw her talking to her mom and sister. I politely said hello to her mother and sister and we headed into the band room. Right then, Sarah ran out of the band room doors.

"FATHAAAA!" she shouted. (Don't ask how I'm her father… and she's my daughter…) She gave me the best hug she could with me holding a stand and I tried to do the same.

"DAUGHTAAAA!" I shouted after her. "Sam, this is Sarah, Sarah this is Sam," I said in the usual quick introduction. They greeted each other warmly as I set the stand down. Mr. W walked towards us.

"Great job, Sam! I'm very proud; you did a good job tonight!" Sam smiled. Mr. W gives those comments out sometimes, but hearing it directly to you just feels good. Sam put bass 3 away and said she had to go because her mom was waiting. She waved goodbye and walked out the door. Bea came walking into the room when she shouted,

"Sarahhhhhhh!" The three of us did a group hug and we were sad to see the Bea had to leave so early. We went to go and eat some cake and have soda. The cake was almost gone, and I didn't get to see the design before it was cut. (I saw a picture, though. It said "Hamilton Charger Band Lunar Phases 2012") I introduced Sarah to a few of my friends from school. We then went to go sit by birthday girl Michelle, Ariel, and Brandon. We talked for a bit about how Sarah was kicked out of band (LOL sorry, Sarah, I love you still!) and how well our show went.

After everyone left, I walked into the band room and he gave me my towel back. I held it by the very edge of the tip. If this was on his face, I definitely don't want to touch it. I said a goodbye to Mr. W and got in the car with Sarah. We drove home to have a good reunion before school started again.

**Sorry this took me so long to upload! I got two freaking hours of sleep last night… I need sleep XD **

**G'night! ~Tenuto07**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hola everybody!**

**Time to write what happened last night. I really gotta stop rhyming… **

**So, the link hasn't worked yet twice. I'm going to figure out a way. **

** key poulan music mbofi /lunar phases**

**If this doesn't work, I don't know what will. I'm gonna start writing now, but I don't remember much. Things happen when you stay up till 3 AM planning an expedition by canoe with Sam and Jeremy!**

**Let's start!**

**2 ½ Basses, One Tenor, and Pit Section Leader Sectional (8/30/12)**

It was _only _10 AM when I hopped in the car and drove to school. (I take that back, I can't personally drive, unless you want a few crashes…) I called Sam up and asked her if she was at school yet. Her mom had to pick up and drive Jeremy and Brandon there as well. "Sam, you at school yet?" I was supposed to get there at 9:45 and the sectional itself was supposed to start at 10, but who's keeping track of time?

"No, are you?" she answered.

"No, I just got into the car."

"You're such a slacker."

"I know," I said with a smile on my face and asked, "Do you have Jeremy with you?"

"Yeah, just picked up Brandon."

"I'll be at school in five," I said.

"Slacker." I love you, Sam.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I gotta go, see you later," Sam said and we both hung up. I got out of the car after having an argument with my mother about whose fault it was for me being late. When I pulled the glass doors open, I saw Marie sitting on the ground with her bag.

"Hi, Marie," I said politely as she waved back.

"Hi," she said. We carried a conversation for a few minutes when I called Sam back. She told me to call her when I arrived at school, so I dialed her number. She picked up and I can hear Jeremy talking in the background.

"I'm at school," I said.

"Yeah, give us another thirty seconds and we'll be there," Sam said.

"Okay," I said and we hung up.

About two minutes later, Sam finally pulled up to the school. She, Jeremy, and Brandon exited the car and Sam pulled on the door. "You slacker," I said when she arrived a minute and thirty seconds later than she said.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, look, everyone's wearing red! Well, not the guys," Sam said.

"Were we supposed to wear red?" Marie asked, confused. Sam and I decided to both wear our Spanish Passion (Show from last year) shirts. They were kind of creepy, but they were designed by our current drum major, Bailey herself.

"No," Sam said and we entered the band room after we asked a janitor if it was okay to walk on the carpets. They got smart this year and decided to shampoo the carpets _after _band camp. Sam and I don't think they'll last more than a day and a half though.

We walked over to the other side of the band room and saw everything literally pushed up against the wall. My marimba, which according to the drumline before the janitors moved everything, was pushed way in the back so far that I wouldn't be able to reach it. Thank God they moved everything. I quickly pulled the marimba out in front of the piano that was somehow plugged in. Marie, Sam, and Brandon all put their basses on while Jeremy was thinking of a way to get his tenor sticks that were sitting atop a concert snare, shoved way in the back behind the toms and the timpani.

"What… are you doing?" I asked Jeremy as he stood there, trying to reach for his drumsticks.

"Fuck, this stuff is in the way… I'm trying to get my sticks. I need them for my tenors," he answered. (And for those of you who don't know about him, he swears _a lot. _That's why whenever I or Sam and me Skype him, it's required to have headphones or ear buds on so nobody hears him) Jeremy quickly gave up and just used his regular drum set sticks to click off.

"I have a pair of marching sticks if you'd like them…" I said as I walked past him. Either he didn't hear me, didn't care, or didn't want them because he didn't answer. Oh well, that's just like him though.

Sam wanted to start off with warm ups. They played through while I quietly practiced some scales. After Sam and Jeremy called us to attention, we played through part 1, which Sam made me play the beginning all alone.

I'm getting a lot better at the beginning. I can't mess up because, come on, who _hasn't _heard the Moonlight Sonata at least _once _in their life. Even if you don't know the name of the song, people usually know the tune before the name. Usually, I either drag or rush the beginning. I'm getting a lot better at playing it at the right tempo and not dragging or rushing.

We played through part 1 too many times and part 3 once. We just made it through the beginning drum break when a woman and a man with a camera walked into the band room. We all stopped when the woman asked for Mr. W. We said he wasn't here at the moment; it was teacher in-service and Mr. W just got out of a meeting with my former band teacher from middle school, Mr. N.

Mr. N was my most favorite teacher in the whole entire middle school. He comes in my top ten favorite teachers for every teacher I've ever had.

Anyway, these two people walked into the room interrupting our rehearsal. After we told them that Mr. W wasn't there, they asked if we minded a few pictures of us. "We're from the Sussex Patch," they said. (Either it was the Sussex Patch or the Sussex Sun… I heard Patch, though) It was (I think) a newspaper in the area. (Either that or they were a news website. Either way, they were news people) The woman was just about to speak when the loud part of the song came and the woman's voice was drowned out. The line and I burst into laughter when Sam walked over to turn it down.

"Do you mind if we snap a few pictures of you guys?" We answered that we didn't care and the bass line took off their basses to talk to them. I walked away from my marimba and Jeremy set down his tenor.

The camera man knelt to the ground and aimed his camera at me. I stopped and smiled when Jeremy nearly fell back trying to get in the picture with me. He quickly stumbled back, put his arm around my shoulder while I put mine around his waist. We both smiled and he put up his free arm to make a peace sign. After when we thought the guy snapped a picture of us, Jeremy and I let go of each other. Out of habit, instead of making the peace sign as he walked away, he accidentally flipped the guy off. "Oh, shit, I tried making a peace sign and I think I accidentally flipped him off," he told me, loud enough for only me to hear. We practically fell on the floor laughing. The rest of them gave us confusing looks and the camera man whipped out a notebook.

"What's your name, sir?" he addressed to Jeremy.

"Jeremy N," he answered. (He obviously put his full last name, but about my rule I said in the beginning of the story…)

"Junior, senior?" he asked again.

"Junior," Jeremy said and walked behind me. He came to me next.

"And you?"

"Emily T," I said. He wrote my first name on the pad of paper and gave me a puzzled look when he tried to spell my last name. My last name was sort of long and pretty much impossible for anyone to pronounce it correctly. (It's 11 letters and if you've ever seen some Asian last names, they can get pretty long) I spelled it out for him and he stumbled over his next few words.

"And… umm… uh…" the camera man said.

"I'm a sophomore," I finished and he smiled and wrote it down on the pad. He went to Brandon next.

"Brandon F," he said and the camera man wrote it down.

"Junior or senior?" he asked.

"Sophomore," Brandon said and they both chuckled. The camera man moved onto Sam and Marie.

After they got our names down, we walked back to our instruments playing part 1 after Sam said it was our only good song we could play. The camera man walked up to me first and knelt down. I don't remember him having his flash on, so I didn't know when he was going to snap a photo of me. We reached my solo when the man finally decided to take a photo of me. I didn't know it, so I played what I thought was right (it didn't sound half bad) and then I quit.

He got up and walked to Jeremy, who was standing right next to me. The man knelt down and literally put his camera at the edge of Jeremy's tenor. _Dude, if you're not careful, Jeremy will seriously accidentally break your camera with his drumstick… _I thought to him. Obviously he never got the message, but he should be happy that his camera is still in one piece. He walked towards the bass line and snapped a few more photos. He and the woman thanked us and walked away.

We played through part 1 at least fifty more times when Sam called for a lunch break. She paused the music and everyone set their drum down. (In my case, I dropped the mallets and walked away…) Marie had to leave, so I put her stand away. "Where are you going?" I asked her as she packed up her binder in her bag.

"Oh, we're going to take a trip up north," she answered as she slammed the mallets back in their holder.

"Ah, have fun!" I said and she smiled. After she put her bass away, Marie walked out the back doors.

"I'm going to make a phone call and then eat lunch outside," Sam said as she opened the door to where Marie just walked through. "Join me out here!" she also put in. (I didn't hear her say the "Join me outside for lunch!" part though…) I, being a lover of playing the piano, walked over to the new electrical piano that was bought by the 2012 seniors themselves.

Every year, the seniors buy Mr. W a gift or two for being the amazing teacher he is. In my sister's year, they presented him by saying, "We took a stop at Ollivander's on the way here…" It turns out that they bought him a replica of Lord Voldemort's wand and he even conducted their last song with it. Last year, however, they bought Mr. W a new electrical piano. It was extremely nice and 10x better than the old one we had that we used in our show last year. (Although Chris really, really wanted to buy Mr. W a new guitar because "It wasn't him who put a hole through his guitar…")

I pressed the power button and started blasting _Afterlife _by Avenged Sevenfold. (If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a big fanof Avenged Sevenfold [Aka A7X] and I don't even know how the piano was plugged into the amp for that matter) Jeremy walked up to me. "Do you want me to turn on _Afterlife _for you?" he asked. He's the one who gets me into all these different bands, such as Skillet, A7X, and other bands for that matter.

"Nah, I think I'm okay," I said and turned back to the piano. I pulled out my phone and pulled up the chords for the song. The next thing I knew, Jeremy's iPod was plugged into the speaker set Mr. W has hooked up and the beginning orchestrated part of _Afterlife _was playing. _Oh, well, _I thought. _At least it's a good song. _I was playing along to Jeremy's iPod (which I failed miserably at) while singing the lyrics to the chorus of the song. "_I don't belong here, we gotta move on, dear… Escape from this Afterlife. 'Cause this time I'm right to move on and on far away from here… Got nothing against you and surely I'll miss you… This place is full of peace and light and I'd hope you'd might take me back inside, when the time is right!" _I sang. I'm a horrible singer, but who was listening?

The song ended and Jeremy blasted Sam's favorite song, _Some Nights _by Fun. He was playing the snare part when Sam came running in, shouting, "Oh my god, I love this song!" I burst out laughing and Jeremy stood there coolly, drumming out the rhythm. I continued to play random A7X music. (If you'd like to see a piano cover of mine, go on YouTube and type in my username "Tenuto07" _So Far Away) _Soon, Sam and Brandon walked back inside from their lunch break. I was still playing random covers when I saw someone walk behind me. I thought it was Jeremy when I didn't turn around and said,

"Hello," I continued to play the piano when a different voice brought to my attention. It was Brandon. (Although I wished it was Jeremy; he's my piano critique) I stepped away from the piano when Sam told us to get our things back together and start playing again. The minute I stepped away, I turned around and saw Brandon playing on it. I had a huge urge to play _Fiction _by none other than A7X and he wouldn't let me, making me walk back to my marimba and we restarted our practice.

Sam got this "brilliant" idea where she'd put song 1 on repeat so I could just jump in the beginning whenever the song ended. By the time I played 1 for what seemed like the 10247th time, Mr. W walked in while I was playing my solo. I messed up and just kinda gave up. I swear, every time I got to my solo, Mr. W would use his super band director ninja skills and walk up to me. Every time I played my solo, I'd always mess up, making me force quit. Not many times later, I found Jeremy and Sam lecturing me. "Play it out, even if it's wrong!" Sam said. "We're so into our music that we won't notice a mistake or two."

"Yeah, you can't just say 'fuck this' and drop out" Jeremy said. He tossed his sticks into the air in a "Fuck this, I'm out" sort of manner. I smirked.

"Fine, but I hope you know I'm not just dropping out for nothing. I _am _trying," I said. It was true. I was trying but the solo didn't want to cooperate with me today.

Soon, we played through part 1 at least a trillion times today. Sam wanted another break, so I ran to the piano to play _Fiction. _It's nowhere near perfect, but apparently Jeremy could tell what song I was playing. Brandon was randomly hitting on the tom drum that Jeremy set up. "Stop," Jeremy said to either Brandon or me. "Play that again," he said.

"Me?" I asked.

"Yeah, I love that song," he said and I played the beginning to _Fiction. _He joined me for the drum part when Sam called us to our attention. She replayed part 1 when I rushed back to my marimba and joined in with the practice track. Soon, the small portion of the drumline that was with me joined in. Mr. W walked out from his office and started to help us out with our parts.

Soon, 2:45 came around and our sectional came to an end. We packed up and I pushed the marimba away. I slung my band bag along with my school bag around my shoulders. I was going to go look for my locker today, but I wasn't in the mood. Guess who has an expedition on Tuesday to go find it? (I don't even know where it is… Guess I'll dump my stuff in Sam's locker or something) We decided to go and talk to Mr. W. "Thank you for helping us out today, Mr. W," Sam thanked him. Of course he's our teacher and that's what we're there for, but a lot of people in the Charger Band appreciate his work a lot.

"No problem," he said. We started talking about things we should start working on. Soon, Sam wanted me to tell Mr. W about our Italy Expedition. Sam, Jeremy and I burst into laughter.

"Mr. W… we can't make it to the next few competitions," I said. He gave me a puzzled look. "Sam, Emma, Jeremy, and I are going on an expedition to Italy by canoe," I said. I practically fell on the ground by looking at his reaction. He gave me this blank stare and then replaced it with a wide grin.

The things my friends and I come up with…

"I was dragged into this!" Jeremy shouted over Sam and me.

"And you're still in charge of bringing all those 40 trillion worms," Sam said and we both burst out into more laughter. (We gotta catch fish somehow, right? I mean, in 4 years and 15 days, that's a long time!)

"Don't worry, we're bringing our band music along," Sam said reassuringly.

"We'll learn Lunar Phases in the next 4 years… if it doesn't get dropped into the ocean first…" I said and we all burst out laughing. We talked more about the new school system our school has put up. (Like if you're late for class, they'll scan your ID card and if you're late 6 times you have an after school detention. And they took out _all _the good vending machines. How am I going to survive without Mtn. Dew? Much less Jeremy? I swear he _inhales _that stuff; he doesn't drink it)

Soon, my mom called me to get in the car. I let my ringtone play before I picked up the call. After I hung up, Jeremy said, "_Storytime _by Nightwish?"

"Yep," I said.

"I love that song," Jeremy said. Oh yeah, he got me into Nightwish, too. Leave it to him…

"Me too. Well, I gotta go. See you guys Tuesday!" I said and waved before exiting the door.

"Bye!" they all shouted. Off to meet my new private piano lessons teacher… Too much music in one day, I'm telling ya.

**Sam's POV:**

**Please note that this part of the story was written by Sam herself and I didn't change any of it… minus all the grammatical errors… I hope you enjoy Sam's point of view! This is her story as much of it as it is mine. Also, she said herself that she's not much of a writer, so please don't hate. I mean, why would you, it's a band story…**

The janitor said "Use the other doors," So we did. I had told everyone to only go on the one half of the band room just so the janitor would not get mad. Emily was fiercely trying to get her marimba un packed from when the janitors moved everything Mr. W was in teacher meetings right next door in the FAC. I decided to start the sectional. I said,

"Let's run through Aspen a couple times!" We did and I had Jeremy count us off. We were soon done warming up. I then instructed everyone to take their music out and run through one. Soon, a man with a camera came along with a woman and she had asked me if Mr. W was in his office. I said, "No, sorry he is in a meeting; but he should be back soon though."

She said, "Oh, well then, did your parents sign the 'do not publish' list?" We all said "no." She then asked if they could take some pictures.

I said, "Sure." They asked for our names and we started playing. They took lots of pictures. We then took around a 5 minute break and went and worked on one again. Later on, all the teachers got out of the meeting and they all came in groups. They watched us and then the next group of people came.

Finally, Mr. W and our old middle school band director, Mr. N came in and watched us. Mr. W told me that I was dragging just a little on the triplet part at the end of movement one. I said, "Ok, I'll be sure to fix it." They then were off; they left for lunch!

Ten minutes later, Marie had to leave so I called for a lunch break. I was sitting outside eating when Mr. W pulls up and he asks me how things are going with the sectional. I said, "good." He then proceeded into his off and stayed there for about an hour. The last 45 minutes before our sectional ended, he came out and helped me and the rest of the group. He listened for a while when he said that I did a good job fixing the dragging in movement one. Mr. W said that I have been getting a lot louder and he said he liked that because I'm like the only one who actually plays loudly! We later moved to movement 3 so he could help us. He helped me a lot by making me play by myself. Mr. W would be ok just me, just basses, just Emily and finally, just Jeremy.

**I'm sorry this took me forever to write! I'm just slacking… again. I really enjoyed that sectional; it was one of my favorites.**

**I really gotta hurry up and post this before Sam kills me… I hope you liked the new thing we both tried in this chapter. I never wrote a story in two people's view before. **

**I don't own anything Harry Potter related or any of those songs I mentioned. They all belong to their rightful owners. Thought I might as well say that before I get yelled at. **

**School starts on Tuesday! (Yay!) You'll get to hear about my school life now, instead of just my summer life. **

**I'm thinking about posting a character list soon. I just gotta type it up. Okayyyyy, I have nothing else to say.**

**Thanks for reading and please leave a review! **

**~Tenuto07**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hola my fellow readers!**

**I'm sorry it took me like 3891 trillion centuries for me to upload this. I've been busy with school and trying to keep up with band. I thought I might sneak in a chapter before our first competition this weekend! I will **_**for sure **_**upload that chapter. I mean, it'll make up for not writing any about the football games. They weren't the best. The first one was kinda fun, but the second one was extremely tense and by no means fun. But the good news is that the Chargers have won both games so far. **

**I guess I'll start now. What other reason would you be on this page for? Oh, and since it's 9/11, I suppose I'll say this: You won't be forgotten. R.I.P. 9/11/01**

**Band Class (9/11/12) **

Sam and I walked from our class called G.A.P. Career to lunch. (And by "lunch," it's otherwise known as the band room. And G.A.P Career is short for guided academic practice. It's supposed to help us pick out a career and whatnot. Jeremy, Sam and I used to take G.A.P. Study Skills together last year. I miss those days greatly…) We both agreed that there was absolutely no time to eat lunch, so we headed to the band room. The two of us stopped by Sam's locker, which was on the way to the cafeteria, to grab her bag. After we left her locker, we headed down to the band room. I walked in to find Kevin and Jackson standing around and talking. There weren't many people here; including Mr. W, who wasn't in the room at the moment. Soon, Mr. W was behind us followed by Jeremy. Mr. W walked in looking like a tree murderer. In his arms were trillions of papers, all for the section leaders to run play tests. "Hey, Mr. W," I said as I saw Jeremy walk in.

"Hey, Emily!" Mr. W said as Shannan quickly followed Jeremy. Mr. W handed Shannan (I think I've been spelling her name wrong for the whole story… but it is spelled Shannan) a stack of the papers that he had in his arms. He handed a smaller stack to me; still warm from the printer. "Run your playing tests soon in the next few weeks; preferably two weeks after Homecoming," Mr. W said as I stared at the sheet. He walked away as Sam walked up to me.

"Emily, help me with my chemistry!" she asked me, just because I showed her how to do scientific notation. Math is my weakest subject and I completely guessed on the answer. I was shocked to see that it was correct. I'm not in chemistry; I could be if I signed up for it. I'll probably end up taking it next year.

"Hey, Emily, do you know how to play _Don't Stop Believin' _on the piano?" Kevin asked me. I shook my head and said,

"No, but I could try." Sam, Kevin and I walked to the back piano room, leaving Jeremy to play on his tenors.

"Hey, I need her, Kevin!" Sam shouted while taking my arm. Kevin protested.

"No, I need her! She's gonna help me!" he said. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help them both. Kevin took my arm and they both lightly tugged on me. I felt so loved.

Kevin sat on the bench and I gave into him. "I'll help you soon," I told Sam. I felt bad for leaving Sam, but at the same time, I wanted to help Kevin. I was no good at chemistry math, let alone math. I was still in a freshman course. Sam nodded and walked away. Kevin told me to close the door. I shut it, making sure I didn't lock us in. I didn't think I would, but it's the band room; _anything _could happen. I joined Kevin on the bench as he was on his iPod Touch on the internet, searching for anything that could help him.

"Damn, I don't get any internet connection in here," he said.

"We're in a practice room at the edge of the school. The walls are made of carpet and there's an ancient piano in here. I don't think you're going to get very good signal," I said jokingly, making both of us smile. I pulled out my phone and turned on the 3G.

"How are you going to get signal?" he asked.

"I have 3G," I said.

"Oh, _3G, _I see how it is…" Kevin said and I grinned. I opened YouTube and typed in: Don't Stop Believin' Synthesia. I clicked on the first video. The intro was very long and I let out a sigh. "Soooo… how was your day?" Kevin said and we burst into laughter.

"Mine was alright, yours?" I ask.

"Good, good!" he answered and we laughed some more. Soon, the actual video started to play and a man's voice started talking.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhhh, shhh!" I said loudly as I clicked the back button. (That's just something I do when something's too loud) I go to the second video as the metronome started to click of and mine and Kevin's hands were resting on top of the keys. We waited for the last few clicks and watched the video. If you were to combine our piano skills for this song, I'd say we hit about 40% of the notes correctly. Soon, instead of following along with the song, we stared at it in awe because of its difficulty level. One minute, it was semi-easy and the next you have to have like six hands to play it.

"Well, fuck that," Kevin said as he pulled out his iPod. He pulled up _Sweet Home Alabama _and started to play it. The whole video was in a different key. "What the hell?" Kevin raged and went back on trying to learn _Don't Stop Believin' _again. Eventually, he got the left hand part and I got the right hand part. Together, we sounded pretty good. Soon, we heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Kevin shouted at the door. On the outside it was locked.

"It's me, Sam!" she shouted as she pounded on the door.

"What do you want?" Kevin asked as he got off the bench and opened the door ever so slightly. Sam budged on it, but even with mine and Sam's combine effort, we can only open it so wide. Kevin was strong.

"I want Emily to come and help me!" Sam said as she budged on the door some more. Kevin sat on the ground and talked to Sam. "What are you two doing in here on the ground?" Sam asked and we all burst out laughing.

"Nothing!" Kevin said as Sam pushed the door and Kevin released his weight. Sam fell to the ground, only to be caught by Kevin's arm so her head wouldn't hit the floor. I suppose Kevin can be somewhat of a gentleman when it comes to making girls fall on the floor. Sam and Kevin both stand up and Kevin sits back down next to me on the bench. We play a little bit of _Don't Stop Believin' _for Sam when we all saw a shadow loom over us. Kevin and I turned around to see Jackson with his neon orange tennis shoes leaning on the doorway. Kevin and I abruptly stop playing for a second and we start playing again. I turned around again to see if he was there. Just like that, he was gone.

"Jackson's a freakin' ninja," I said as Kevin ran out of the room. Sam and I exited the room. She handed me about fifteen sheets of paper of her Civics homework.

"Read this for me!" Sam begged me as I stared at the packet like an idiot. I read the first two words: _The revolution… _

"Sam," I started, "I'm not reading this."

"Why not?!" Sam said in her "sarcastic voice of disbelief" tone; the one that usually made me laugh.

"Have you _read _the first sentence?" I read it aloud to her.

"Sam, _reading? _This is why I'm having you do it!" she said, both of us laughing.

"You've got a point," I said as we walked over to Emma. "Emma, I don't want to read this!" I complained to her as she looked at the assignment.

"Whose is it?" she asked as she put her lunch away and assembled her clarinet together.

"Sam's," I said. "I don't want to read it! You should hear the first two words!" I read half of the sentence aloud to the both of them. I quickly skimmed the rest. I ignored most of the words until I saw that one word that most teenagers try to avoid: politics. "Yeah, I just read the word, 'politics,' Sam. I don't like anything that has to do with their stupid government system from seven thousand years ago," I said and the three of us started laughing. Emma and Sam started talking about something that was probably important, but I walked away with the fifteen sheets of paper, tried to avoid the guard and running into Jeremy's tenors while he played, edged my way around the concert season podium, and walked to Mr. W's office. "Hey, Mr. W," I started.

"Yeah?" he said, not turning around from his computer.

"Do you want the pit outside?"

"Yes, so start grabbing pit members and get their things outside," he said.

"Okay," I replied and quickly walked away from his office, just barely dodging flying rifles. I hear the B lunch bell ring, signaling that lunch has ended and they had five minutes to get to class. Hamilton has three different lunches: A, B, and C. We go by block scheduling, so each class is eighty-three minutes and every student has four classes and five if they are in band or choir. A lunch is right after second block, B splits third block (so in mine and Sam's case, we go to G.A.P., then to lunch, then straight to band) and C lunch is after third. Since of the weird new way of block scheduling for us this year, every person in band/choir has B lunch, which is also the shortest of the three. I personally hate B lunch. It's quite stupid to eat then go outside to march and play your instrument. It doesn't make sense, but that's Hamilton for you.

The students pile into the band room from lunch. I follow Jeremy out the door (he made a pretty good path) to go find the pit students. I spot Matt and tell him to get his things to the field immediately. Since we split third block with two classes, our class time is reduced to only forty-two minutes. If you ask anyone, it's not enough time to get everything to the field, play, and get to your fourth block class. We also don't get much accomplished. Somehow, we find ways. "Matt, pit's on the field, get your stuff!" I say. He groaned at the thought of pushing everything to the field. "I know, it's work, but you gotta do it!" I say and smile. I wait for any signs of Eric or Jake. I couldn't wait any longer; I had to get my things to the field.

After attempting to not hit any cars, I safely got my marimba next to the drum major's podium. It was new record time for the pit and me: Less than five minutes. Jake still hasn't made any appearance and Elijah wasn't in band. (It's a long story for him; I'm not going to explain why) _Where the hell is this kid? _I thought to myself. When everyone got to the field, we played through a bit of movement one, where I accidentally slowed down the beginning a lot. There was no band or piano to rely on, so Matt and I accidentally slowed down too much.

It wasn't our best rehearsal we've had. The pit and I are always off time. I get irritated with myself because I couldn't time it right. I've been off so much lately, it's horrible. Soon, the pit and I packed up and headed inside. The bell rung, signaling that I had to go to my next class, art survey. I gather my things and followed Sam out the door.

Only five weeks till State.

**FIVE WEEKS?! I'M NOT READY YETTT NOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**Something I forgot to add last chapter:**

**Support Jeremy's band, **_**Emotionless Outcast **_**(or formally known as **_**Avenge of the Fallen **_**if you want to YouTube it. But now it's up as E.O. I think) **

**YouTube: ** www. / user/ meta lrev wolf ?feature =results_main

And if that doesn't work, then just YouTube it yourself if your that curious. Obviously, Jeremy's their epic drummer.

**Facebook: ** www. / Avenge Of The Fallen I think they deserve more likes than what they have, so tell your friends… I guess.

**Alex is also in a band called **_**Heroes and Villains. **_

**Facebook: ** www. / heroes and villains band Again, if this doesn't work, look it up yourself.

**YouTube: ** www. / watch ?v=3ZqqCzgJG3M And if this one doesn't work, then find it! This is them playing at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The channel isn't their official band channel, though.


	18. Chapter 18

**I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~ SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN LIKE… MILENIAS! I seriously am. I've been so busy with school and band rehearsals that I just couldn't keep up anymore… But since today was State, I am forcing myself to write this up to have a good finale, even if it means staying up till 5AM. Well, I'm gonna start. I'm seriously going to finish this. I've planned out the ending for months now.**

**WSMA State Championships (10/13/12) [Final Competition]**

Sam and I jumped out of the car. It was raining, so the competition was going to be held indoors (which really sucks, especially for the seniors). Matt C, the tuba player, opened the band room doors for us and let us all in. Technically the band wasn't supposed to be here till 1:30, but most of the band already showed up. The drumline had to clean their drums and tape sticks. I was there because I got a ride with Sam.

I played the marimba with Kevin. I recently taught him part 3 of last year's show, Spanish Passion. It was quite a catchy song. While Kevin messed around on the marimba, I turned to John, who was putting black foam strips on the bass drum (Not the marching ones, the legit pit one). "What are those, John?" I asked.

"Foam strips; if I don't put them on, he'll overpower the band," John said and I gave a light laugh. I turned back to Kevin and taught him the dance party (Did I tell you guys what the dance parties were? I might have. But if I haven't, there are two of them in part 3 where it's all jazzy and we dance). He knew how to play most of it already. Actually, most people do know how to play the dance party. I have absolutely no idea how, seeing as I only taught Eric and everyone picked it up somehow.

After a little while, Mr. W ordered us to put on our marching shoes and get into the gym to play. When everyone got into the gym, we worked on marching basics and warm-ups for God knows how long. Finally, we got to run the show. By the time we ran part 1, my ears were ringing. I hate the echoes. For once, the pit actually overpowered the band.

We ran the show a few times, fixed what we could, and headed out to lunch. One of the awesome things about being in pit is you can bring your instrument in early and get in the lunch line before anyone else. I was walking down the hall with the marimba with Matt behind me. Chris, the graduate of '12 was in front of me, walking with his girlfriend, Lindsey, Kelsey J's older sister. "Emily!" Matt loudly whispered to me. "Who is that?"

"Chris, graduate from last year, snare. HEY, CHRIS!" I said in a kind of quiet tone. He turned around and I waved to him. Chris smiled and waved back. He walked out the door and joined the other graduates who came to visit. When Matt and I got into the band room, we loaded our things onto the truck and started to grab food. I grabbed a sub and walked to the cafeteria. When I got there, I saw Eric sitting at one table and Matt at the other. I was about to sit by Eric, when he said,

"Ha, Matt, look I have two people and you have nobody!" Just for that, I sat right next to Matt. We talked a bit and I left to roam around.

A little while later, after a good handful of people were done eating, we started loading the buses. Since its State, we got two Coach Buses. I walked onto bus one, because that's the drumline bus and I found Sam L, Jeremy, Alex, and Nick all trying to figure out seating arrangements. After we semi-figured it out, I went to grab my uniform. Before I walked off, I asked, "Hey, who wants me to grab their uniform for them?" Jeremy's hand shot up. Nick raised his and everyone started talking at once. "Wait, WAIT… who wants me to grab theirs?"

"Nah, I'll get mine, thanks, though," Nick said. Sam didn't say anything, so I assumed he was just going to grab theirs. I ended up running to the uniform room, dodging Kevin, and grabbing everyone's uniform and hat box. Let me tell you, that stuff is hard to carry around. I walked out and one of the band mom's asked,

"Emily, are you three different people today?" I laughed and said,

"Nah, I just love the drumline too much." With that, we both laughed and I walked on the bus again. I walked on and off that bus at least twelve times before leaving.

When the band got on the bus, we had some seating issues (I mean, why do the freshman get to sit in the back? Seriously?). Eventually, I sat next to Carl, Marie's boyfriend, with Jeremy in front of me and Brandon behind me. Jeremy turned to me. "What'd you do with my hat box?"

"I left it on your seat."

"Well, it's not here."

"Well, I didn't move it."

"WHERE'S HAT BOX NUMBER NINE?!" Jeremy shouted over the people on the bus. Some people turned their heads. Jeremy and I started frantically searching. I looked under people's seats, random hat boxes lying around, and the compartments on top. We couldn't find it. Jeremy ran off the bus with an open can of Mtn Dew while I asked around.

"Hey, Marie, have you seen hat box number nine?" Marie shook her head and we looked around. The overhead compartment that Jeremy looked in actually had his hat box in it. Marie took a few things out and it was sitting behind a ton of jackets and other stuff. I thanked her, got off the bus as fast as possible, and ran into the band room to find Jeremy. "Jeremy… I found your hat box!"

"Oh, I know where it is. It's behind everything in the compartment." I almost did a face palm. I assumed Sam L. told him.

"Really… really?" I said as I turned out of the band room and walked away. On the sidewalk, Jeremy caught up with me and said,

"You know… I don't know how I got off the bus and sprinted towards the band room without spilling this." He lifted up his Mtn Dew and I laughed.

"I couldn't tell you," I said. We got onto the bus and started on our way to the final competition of the season.

**Sometime Later…**

From Hamilton to UW Whitewater, it was approximately an hour and a half drive, which is nothing when riding with the band. I was half asleep with my iPod blasting in my ear. Most of the back of the bus were all standing in the aisle with Sam L's iPod dock, playing random music. They were all dancing and singing. Soon, Sam got up to use the bathroom.

We were normally driving along the countryside, making good time to get to State. That's when we heard a really loud BANG! "Sam, are you okay in there?" The back of the bus asked him in a concerning tone.

"I FOUND A PENNY!" Sam shouted and we all burst out laughing. The rest of the way to State was a ride I couldn't forget.

We arrived at Whitewater. The band and I pulled our uniforms on and we got off the bus to unload our instruments. The pit and I gathered, grabbed our instruments, and pulled them all around campus to this stupid gym. Once we arrived in the gym, we found out that the pit goes somewhere else. Pit adventure number two of the day.

We reached the other building when we found out that—guess what—the pit gets no practice time! We literally used all of our practice time pulling our stupid instruments around. The pit and I watched Milton High School's band perform. They were good—really good. On next was us. I felt the pressure build up.

In an e-mail I got, it said that the pit got, like, no room to put their things and we'll be really close to the audience. They weren't kidding. I pulled the marimba up, giving myself about a foot of space between the yard markers and the marimba itself. It was like, BAM! Hello, Audience, nice of you to watch EVERY SINGLE MOVE WE MAKE. The camera man was literally two feet away from me. I stood at attention and waited for the band to be ready.

"Drum majors, Devin S, Bailee B, and Jackson P, is your band ready?" The judge's voice boomed over the speaker. They did their salute. "You may now take place in WSMA State Championships, class quad A division!"

Jackson ran up to the podium and silently counted us off. I concentrated; this was it. We don't get a second chance.

I don't know what to say about movement one. I think Jackson was conducting too slowly because I felt like I was ahead. The pit feature was excellent. Everyone hit every note and was perfectly timed. The ending was smoothly cut off, ending with a ring on Elijah's instruments.

Movement two, _Claire De Lune, _was almost perfect. Bailee conducted beautifully.

Movement three was rushed like crazy. I swear Devin picked up the pace too quickly. When I got to the triplet runs, my hands were flying. He cut off at the end and a final ring from Elijah came. Everyone cheered loudly. I was so proud of the pit and everyone else. I marched off the field when I passed Leah and her boyfriend, Cody. "Great job, pit!" Leah shouted over the roar of the crowd. I smiled as thanks and walked off.

The pit and I put our instruments away. "Awesome job, guys. It was amazing!" I congratulated them and we walked back with smiles on our faces.

We had to take pictures, so getting out of uniform was out of the question. The pit and I ran back to the field house, up the stairs, and into the gym. It was extremely warm for an October night. By the time I got there, the pit and I were sweating. We took two formal pictures, and two informal ones. The first one the pit and I decided on angry faces and the second one, I jumped up onto the next level and the pit and I did one huge group hug. I can't believe today is my very last day in pit for the rest of my life. Well, at least I'm hoping.

Soon, we had to take section photos. The percussion got together. We took two formal pictures and one informal. They counted from ten backwards and Samantha ran over to me, tried to pick me up, but then Eric picked up Megan, so Sam dropped me. "Three… two… one…" the camera lady counted backwards and I got right behind Jeremy, next to Jake and Matt right in time to get my head shot. Worst band photo ever.

The pit and I ran away after that. We walked to the buses and changed out of uniform. I put my phone in my pocket and walked off the bus after telling Eric Sam's epic penny story. I found Samantha and waited for her to get out of her uniform. We walked back to the field house when she bought me a Mtn Dew and herself a bag of chips. We both gathered with a little bit of the band and watched through the windows of the next band performing.

I sort of left Sam for a little bit while questing around with Emma and a freshman named Paige. Soon, we walked back for the awards when I found a few drummers, Chong, and Jared B (Junior trumpet) sitting on the ground, waiting for the doors to open. I had really nobody to talk to, so I stood there awkwardly with a bottle of Mtn Dew.

I saw Jeremy do a double-take of me when he found out that I had a Mtn Dew. Seriously, this kid is addicted to this stuff. For our Jazz Band trip to Eau Claire last year, we went to a restaurant together and he bought a two liter bottle of just Mtn Dew. The next day, he didn't come to school. I almost thought he died of a heart attack. Sometimes I'm surprised he's still alive.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked me.

"At the concession stand…" I said.

"And you didn't get any for me?"

"I didn't buy this. Sam did for me," I said. "Want some?" I offered.

"Meh… I'm okay, I suppose," he said. As we were waiting for awards, he stood up and read a sign on a window next to us. "I don't know if this is a fail or not…" he pointed to a sign that read: _Dear students, please don't ask us for clues to the scavenger hunt. That would be considered cheating. So, please, don't ask. _I burst out laughing.

"I really don't know, Jeremy," I said. Soon, Ana (trumpet) came running towards us.

"HEY, CHARGERS, GET IN THERE, NOW! WE LOOK SO DUMB RIGHT NOW; THERE'S ONLY, LIKE, TEN PEOPLE IN THERE!" Jeremy and I sprinted in two different directions. I got into the field house and I felt like an idiot. The bands around us were in full uniform with their instruments, topped off with their hats. They were in formal lines looking extremely professional. The Chargers were standing as a huge random group, clothed in t-shirts, jeans, and marching shoes. I was even holding a Mtn Dew.

"Well, I feel professional," I said out loud to anyone who was listening. Some people laughed and we made some formal lines. The next thing I knew, Marie was behind me and Sam L. was in front of me. Sam turned around to talk to me (I forgot what he told me…)

"You know, I'm kinda sad that we're going to be home before midnight," I told him.

"I know! Man, that would have been so much fun!" he said. Soon, everyone was having a Who-has-softer-hair contest. I think Sam won that contest. "Come on, hurry up with the awards! I got places to go!"

"Places to go and people to see?" Joanna, a freshman guard girl asked.

"No, just places to go, nobody to see. Well, just my bed. Places to go and things to see," Sam answered. The three of us were laughing.

It turns out that we got seventh place out of seven bands. I don't care because, as Michelle says, a seven is just a fancy one. I'm so proud of everyone in the band. Waukesha North, of course, got first with all the fancy awards. We got a 73.1 I think (I'll have to check later). "In first place… with a score of 91.3…"

"HOLY FUCK!" I shouted (I don't even know where that swear word came from… It kinda just slipped). A lot of people gasped at the amazing score.

"Please congratulate… WAUKESHA NORTH!" Of course. They win everything. I wonder if they ever get tired of losing. Oh well, I suppose they deserve it. The Northstar band is amazing.

We walked back to the buses. When a cross guard stopped us so some cars could get past, the Chargers and I shouted, "YEAH, SEVENTH PLACE, WHAT NOW?!"

On the bus, the group stood up in the back. Mr. W told us how far we've come and how proud of us he was. He passed the mic to Shannan. "Everyone, I want to tell you how happy I am to be a part of the Charger band. All of you guys are like my family to me for these past four years." Shannan sounded about ready to burst into tears at any second. "I want to thank you for these past four years of hard work. I remember as a junior, I was talking to Niki about it (I don't know who Niki is…) and saying, 'wow, we only have one year left…' and now it's all over." She passed the mic to another girl. I don't know her name but I know who she is. She was crying.

"Shannan made me cry, thank you for all of your hard work with me! I really appreciate it! You guys are my family and always will be!" she said. The ride back was a bit depressing, minus the fact that Mr. W was cracking some jokes.

"Are you guys afraid we might not make it back? Well, this cornfield to your right will be your new home for the next few days!" Mr. W said and we all started laughing.

As we were reaching Hamilton, he said, "Okay, everyone, we're around fifteen minutes away from Hamilton, so call your parents! Emily T, are you on this bus?"

"YEAH!" I screamed from the back because Mr. W was all the way in the front.

"Call your parents and answer your phone!" Mr. W said. You don't know how hard I was laughing. I looked down at my phone. Sam sent me a text.

**Sam: **Hey, call your parents to pick you up!

**Me: **Best shout-out ever.

I called my parents and hung up with them a few minutes later. The guys who were standing up in the back were singing _Time of Your Life _by Green Day. Mr. W turned the speaker on as we were pulling into the school. "I love it how only one and a half people know all of the lyrics to that song," He said. I was sitting there laughing like an idiot, watching my family arm-in-arm and singing random lyrics to the song. "Thank you guys for an excellent season. I love working with this group; you guys were amazing! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and see you all on Monday!" Mr. W said and he turned off his mic.

We unloaded the buses. I walked up to the line to the uniform room to put my uniform away for the last time before the Memorial Day parade in May. "Emily!" Jeremy said behind me. "Please put this away?" I sighed and smiled.

"Of course," I said and took his uniform and hat box. I put it away and walked back to get the pit stuff, which was not-so-neatly sitting in a corner. I cleaned up a little bit of it when Mr. W told me to. In the end, I gave up, waved people goodbye as they all headed to Culver's (For those of you who don't live in the Midwest, Culver's is a lot like McDonald's, just 10x better) for a band party thing. I really wanted to go, but I had no ride.

Alex walked up to me and spread out his arms. I gave him a hug, knowing that this year was his last. "Great job tonight," he said. "You make a wonderful pit section leader and I hope to see you do it again!" Alex encouraged. I almost burst into tears.

"Thanks, Alex. You were very good tonight. Nice job on your solo in three," I said.

"Aww, thanks!" Alex said. He smiled and waved goodbye as he headed out to Culver's with the rest of the guys.

The band room was getting close to empty. Sam was sitting on the throne of the drum set, randomly hitting the hi hat and snare. She picked up my snare audition music. The last measure says: To triangle. It was circled in blue pen with handwriting that could be no other than Jeremy's wrote: Was this because of Eric? I laughed at the percussion inside joke when last year we played a piece and Eric messed up a triangle solo. Don't ask how either.

My dad came and picked me up. We drove off, me thinking about how well we did during our competition.

We ended with a final score of 71.3%. I was sad to see the season end, but I was looking forward to another year. I'm trying out drum major again, but with Devin, Bailee and Jackson as drum major's, the chances of me becoming one are very small. (Maybe I'll add extra chapters of the tryouts!)

In the Charger band, we classify each section by the band itself, the drum majors, the percussion, and the color guard. But all in all, we're one family working together as a whole. I'm proud of every person in the band. We had our good days and bad, the fun moments and our serious times. Everyone worked hard to achieve a goal that would be unforgettable.

That's why today and every day, I stand with the Hamilton Charger Band.

**Well, that's it, everyone! I hope the ending wasn't too cheesy. It was just something I thought about a while back. **

** I really hoped you enjoyed hearing about the Charger band. I'm super glad for all of you guys who went out of your way to read this. It means a lot, seriously. Marching band on FF isn't exactly the most popular topic of reading, but for all my fellow band geeks out there, well, I'm glad to make some sort of band entertainment for you. And I still am sorry for not posting about any other competitions. When I find the scores, I'll post them for the next chapter.**

** Once again, thank you so much for sticking with me until the end. I'm going to make a shout out to everyone who reviewed:**

**Chinaluv – especially you! You reviewed on almost every chapter! Thank you so much!**

**HowQuestionable**

**PurpleWings71**

**GinaMcknight**

**Ashlight11**

**Harmonious Wolf**

**DarkLightMaster**

**And… well that's it. A lot of you left multiple reviews. Thank you!**

**Finally, thank you, Sam, (Trackgirl18) for pushing me to write this, reading every chapter, and being there with me throughout the whole season! We'll stick together for concert season!**

**Okay, I'm good. Stay posted for next seasons! **

**~Tenuto07**


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